



Book. 



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Cqpyiiglitl>J? 



CORTRIGHT DEPOSIT. 



ORGANIZED LABOR 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON • CHICAGO 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO.. Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



Organized Labor 

ITS PROBLEMS AND 
HOW TO MEET THEM 



BY 

A. J. PORTENAR 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1912 




Copyright, 1912, bt 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 



Set up and electrotyped. Published in October, 1912 



Printed by J. J. Little & Ives Co., New York 



©CLA328051 



TO ORGANIZED LABOR 



Reflecting every human frailty; 
Reflecting every human virtue; 
Broad, noble, petty, selfish; 
Liberal, generous, tyrannical, arrogant; 
Working injustice while crying for justice; 
Working for justice while suffering injustice; 
More good than evil, more sinned against 
than sinning; 



This book is dedicated in the hope that it 
may be of service. 



PREFACE 

Organized labor's tomorrow is in the making 
to-day. Certainly, this proposition is axiomatic in 
relation to all men and all institutions; but there 
come times when the fact is obtrusively evident. 
An hour for definite decision between courses 
diametrically opposed is an hour whose influence 
may determine the events of a century or a 
millennium. 

Such a crisis is imminent in the history of 
organized labor. Two contradictory theories 
upon which to mold its future present themselves 
and there can be no compromise between them. 
Being entirely convinced of the wisdom of one of 
these courses of action, and hence necessarily 
entirely opposed to the adoption of the other, I am 
impelled to strive with all my power to induce 
my fellow workmen to set their feet upon that 
path which secures to them in their days reason- 
able enjoyment of the good in life, and at the 
same time leads them onward to the making of 
progressively better conditions for their posterity. 
It is a choice between light and life as against 
darkness and death, and I am for light and life. 

A word concerning a matter which touches me 
closely. Having been informed that the settled 
policy of the publisher precludes the use of the 
Allied Printing Trades label upon books published 
by it, I have requested and obtained the permission 
of the Macmillan Company to announce that this 
book was manufactured under union conditions. 

Brooklyn, Sept. 24, 1912. A- J- Portenar. 



CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. What Shall We Do? 2 

II. A Glance Backward 4 

III. Syndicalism 14 

IV. By Way of Explanation 28 

V. Organization By Industry 33 

VI. Arbitration 42 

VII. The Strike 51 

VIII. Insurance Benefits 55 

IX. The Apprentice 76 

X. Co-operative Trading (with an 

Added Feature) 84 

XI. Related Things 103 

XII. Summary 119 



VII 



OEGANIZED LABOK: ITS PROBLEMS 
AND HOW TO MEET THEM 

I. WHAT SHALL WE DO? 

WHEN the McNamaras confessed, press, 
pulpit, and platform poured out such a 
volume of admonition to organized labor that if 
the value of advice could be measured by its quan- 
tity, the question, What shall we do? would be 
unnecessary. Unfortunately for us, copious as 
counsel has been, it did not even touch upon our 
problem. Some of it was well intentioned; but 
not all. There was malice in it, with little pains 
taken for its concealment; there was exultation in 
it, for that we had sinned and been found out; 
there was patronizing forgiveness in it, if we would 
go and sin no more. But that which was con- 
spicuously lacking in most of it was the sympa- 
thetic consideration of underlying causes, and the 
means whereby those causes could be removed or 

[1] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

so minified that their terrible fruits would ripen 
no more. And it did not tell us what to do. 

Lincoln Steffens endeavored to find out what 
had happened and what had made it happen; a 
hard task. And then he sought to prove it to 
the satisfaction of the complacent; which was in- 
finitely harder. I think he went searching for the 
Holy Grail. But he did not tell us specifically 
what to do. 

While public attention was still focused upon 
Judge Bordwell's court in Los Angeles a delegation 
went to Washington (and some of the salt of the 
earth which has not lost its savor was in that dele- 
gation). They presented a petition to the Presi- 
dent asking for the appointment of a commission 
to look into the industrial problem from every 
angle. Whereby they most pertinently showed 
officialdom what to do. President Taft has since 
acted upon that suggestion. But their action pro- 
vided no answer to the question. What shall we do? 

One man has sounded the true note. Rabbi 
Stephen S. Wise, on December 24, 1911, speaking 
in his Free Synagogue, said: "Let it not be 
imagined that the Los Angeles outrages are the 
final condemnation of organized labor, or that 
this is the time to deal a crushing blow to the 

[2] 



WHAT SHALL WE DO? 

body of workingmen in the land, who must more 
than ever before, in the words of Mazzini, organize^ 
and ORGANIZE, and ORGANIZE !'' 

So far as a generaUzation may serve, this ad- 
vice cannot be improved upon. But there remain 
to be worked out the details of its appKcation. 
It does not mean proselytism alone. The mis- 
sionary spirit has always been strong in trades 
unionism, and there need be no doubt that this 
duty will be thoroughly performed. But there 
is much likelihood that the wider significance of 
organization will remain unnoticed, and the in- 
tensive cultivation of its possibilities remain 
neglected, as has been the case in the past. In 
other words, we gather an army, and then fail to 
provide it with equipment and drill. 



[3] 



II. A GLANCE BACKWARD 

Maybe we can tell better what to do if we con- 
sider what we have done, and why. The trade 
union came into being because it was needed; be- 
cause the helpless individual found in concerted 
action with other individuals his best, if not his 
only means of resistance to the arbitrary exercise 
of power, to injustice, to cruelty. It was a hard 
fight. Wealth, and the merciless power of wealth; 
the statute law, forbidding workmen to co-operate 
for the purpose of increasing wages, and fixing 
maxima, with its interpreters zealous for its 
rigorous enforcement; legislative bodies deaf to 
the cries of those who were denied the privilege 
of a voice in the selection of their members; and 
the broken-spirited timidity of those in whose 
behalf the union was created; these were the forces 
to be contended with and overcome. Incredible 
hardships and misery were the burnt offerings 
laid upon the altar of its upbuilding, and these 
being given, the failure of the principle was im- 
possible. 

[4] 



A GLANCE BACKWARD 

Thus trade unionism was born. Its weapon 
was the strike. The employer who cared nothing 
for the loss of the services of one or a few, regarded 
with apprehension the cessation of work by all his 
employees. Later, and of less potency, came the 
boycott and the label. So, losing a battle here 
and winning a battle there, unionism became a 
powerful lever for the bettering of the condition 
of the working masses. The tide of war was in 
its favor. 

But the evident advantages of organization and 
combination could not be monopolized by one 
party. It is not necessary to this argument to 
trace in detail the forms of unionism adopted by 
employers, for their development is proceeding 
under our very eyes. It is sufficient to say that 
at this day the associations of employers are re- 
covering some of the power lost by individual 
employers during the evolution of the unions of 
employees, and so long as the contest continues 
to be waged on the lines measurably successful 
in the past, so long will the wealthier, more com- 
pact, and (in everything but numbers) more 
powerful organization continue to regain what it 
had formerly lost. The tide of war has set the 
other way. 

[5] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

That changes in the poKcy and methods of 
trade unionism are essential to the maintenance 
of its influence as a factor in industrial develop- 
ment is conceded by all unionists who have given 
thought to the matter, but there is no such una- 
nimity in conclusions as to what these changes 
ought to be. Temperament has much to do in 
shaping the opinions of individuals, and circum- 
stances will undoubtedly exert powerful if not 
controlling influence over the tendencies of the 
mass. The most distinctive departure from 
traditional methods that is being advocated is at 
the same time the most extreme. What is known 
in Europe as syndicalism, but which has been 
more widely referred to in this country as "direct 
action," has been thrust upon our attention in 
such a manner and by such men as to make it 
evident that the first and most important decision 
that trades unionists will have to make will be 
the acceptance or rejection of the aim and program 
of syndicalism. There are many who conceive 
syndicalism to be merely a gospel of violence, and 
they have been led to that belief by the mistaken 
characterization of newspapers when commenting 
on the McNamara affair. But it is much more 
than that. It is my intention to give a brief 

[6] 



A GLANCE BACKWARD 

review of the inception and history of that 
movement, but before doing so it is pertinent 
to consider in our survey what has caused in- 
cidental violence in strikes, and what has come 
of it. 

The picket line is usually the point of contact at 
which antagonistic forces clash; and little wonder 
is it that it should be so. But let us see how the 
resort to violence has worked out for us, from 
the standpoint of material advantage. Not be- 
cause that is the only or the highest standpoint, 
but because that is the view upon which its advo- 
cates depend for justification. 

A bitter grievance of organized labor for many 
years has been the issuance of injunction orders 
in labor disputes. The first writs of this character 
were in restraint only of acts of violence, and 
were defended as being necessary because of 
violence or the probability of violence. The 
value of the writ to one of the parties was quickly 
recognized, and its scope was broadened, until 
now it is a common practice of the courts to forbid 
us the exercise of ordinary natural rights. With- 
out hesitation, judges enjoin us from leaving em- 
ployment, from inducing others to enter or leave 
employment, from paying assessments for the 

[7] 



PROBLEMS OP ORGANIZED LABOR 

maintenance of fellow members on strike; they 
order us to refrain from using public thoroughfares 
or speaking to other persons, particularly employees 
of a struck shop. And the alleged justification 
for these invasions of constitutional rights is now, 
as for the earlier and more limited writs, the pre- 
vention of violence. Meanwhile, only too often, 
we ourselves have lent color to the claim usually 
made by petitioners, that the restraining order is 
essential to the conduct of their business and the 
safety of their employees. And when the injunc- 
tion is issued, its effect is far greater than its 
language really warrants, for to many uneducated 
men it is an instrument full of vague terrors, and 
serves excellently to impress them with an inde- 
finable but none the less real feeling that the law 
is actively working against them, with the con- 
sequent weakening of their confidence of victory. 
Has violence served us when we consider this 
consequence? 

Violence begets violence. The policeman has 
no discretion when blows are struck or hard names 
called. It is true, he is sometimes extremely 
officious in the performance of his duty, but it is 
also true that at least as often he is inclined to 
sympathize with the strikers. Extra labor thrown 

[8] 



A GLANCE BACKWARD 

on him leads to exasperation, and sooner or later 
he uses his club, not only because he is ordered 
to, but because he wants to. If the job is too big 
for the police, out come the militia, frequently 
oflacered by men implacably opposed to labor 
unions; and occasionally even regular troops. 
Their violence, no matter to what lengths it may 
go, has the sanction of law. Do we evince much 
wisdom when we by violence thus bring upon our- 
selves the violent resources of the state .^^ 

But worse than all other consequences, violence 
is the excuse for arming thugs, private detectives 
and professional strikebreakers, ostensibly for 
protection against us, frequently for active ag- 
gression upon us. And then, when the union 
man is shot or clubbed, the murderous, irre- 
sponsible assailant claims self-defense, and has a 
"prima facie case based on the violence so often 
indulged in by our people, but which may be 
entirely absent from a particular incident. Has 
any advantage accrued to us in this regard from 
violence .f^ 

I know and appreciate the provocations. I know 
how the efforts and sacrifices of union men fix 
a standard upon which are based the compensa- 
tion and working conditions of those whose narrow 

[9] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

selfishness is the chief factor in rendering those 
efforts and sacrifices useless; who are dragging 
us down at the very time we are trying to pull 
them up. I have felt the instinctive impulse 
to treat them as the savage treats his enemies. 
But I cannot knov/ the motives which actuate 
them, nor the necessities that compel them, nor 
can I bring them to see eye to eye with me, if 
my approach is a menace and my argument a 
club. 

Can a picket line be peacefully maintained and 
at the same time successfully conducted? I 
know it can, for I have had my share of such 
work, done in that way, and well done. Men 
have been met going to and from their work in 
struck shops, have been reasoned with, walking 
alongside of them for a block or two, then parted 
from with a good night or good morning. Met 
again the next day; and again, and still again. 
At first the policeman is suspicious and the 
"'rat" apprehensive. But it soon becomes ap- 
parent that he need not fear even the *' construc- 
tive assault" of a detaining hand placed on his 
coat sleeve. He becomes accustomed to having 
some one walk a couple of blocks with him night 
and morning. He is invited in somewhere, if he 

[10] 



A GLANCE BACKWARD 

is willing to go, and the matter is talked over 
around a table with something on it. Think of 
him as a "scab" if you will, but your business is 
to get him out of that shop, and this way is far 
more efficacious than "arf a brick/' 

So much for incidental violence, which subsides 
when the particular difficulty which has given rise 
to it has been adjusted. But what of a program 
of deliberate and continued violence .f^ It is not 
necessary to point out the hideousness of such 
crimes as that of Los Angeles. Even those who 
resort to them make no attempt at ethical justifica- 
tion. There is no defense except that the end 
justifies the means, and the means are efficient for 
securing the end. Have such means been effi- 
cient.? Let the unhappy position of organized 
labor when the McNamara confessions startled 
the world furnish the answer. A program like 
theirs can never secure a better test of its effective- 
ness and ultimate value to the cause it professes 
to serve than was given it in the past five years, 
with the confession of the McNamaras for its 
culmination, and the bitter humiliation and re- 
tardation of organized labor for its result. 

I know and appreciate the dejection that comes 
with the conviction that the giant unions of 

[11] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

capital are not at all or only in small degree 
vulnerable by the weapons hitherto depended 
on; that their vast resources enable them to 
carry out the coldly deliberate intention to de- 
stroy or make impotent the associations of em- 
ployees. Again I say, the savage instinct is 
comprehensible to me; and again, more emphati- 
cally than before, I say that to indulge it is 
absolutely fatal. 

I would not wish to be misunderstood in saying 
this. I would not wish the union man who may 
read this to suppose me to mean that never, 
under any circumstances, should there be in his 
mind the thought of violent resistance to ag- 
gression. For instance, had I been in Lawrence 
and concerned in the textile strike, I would a 
thousand times sooner fight against the unlawful 
attempt to prevent the sending forth of the chil- 
dren than against the lawful entry of scabs into 
the mills. The idea of armed rebellion enters my 
mind more readily in connection with political 
than industrial affairs, because I believe that our 
industrial condition will not be hopeless until our 
political rights are destroyed. In an age and in 
a country where education and the franchise are 
the guaranteed privileges of the humblest, I have 

[12] 



A GLANCE BACKWARD 

abounding faith that the school book and the ballot 
will make unnecessary the rifle and the bomb. 
But should my faith be not well founded, should 
these means be insufficient, then I prefer the 
thought of Cromwell's Ironsides to the Jacquerie. 
So much by way of explanation. But of rioting 
on the picket line and dynamite explosions on 
non-union jobs, I would not modify one word that 
I have written. 

Hence the first answer to the question, What 
shall we do.^^ is a negative. We shall not resort 
to open or furtive violence. Those to whom an 
ethical reason is sufficient need not be urged to 
refrain from it. Those who see in it a means 
of advancement should be satisfied that the best 
to be hoped from it is temporary gain, certain 
to be followed by punishment for the guilty and 
disaster for the movement. The two reasons 
together should control us all. 



[13] 



III. SYNDICALISM 

A word may convey an idea as a lightning 
flash illumines a scene; yet to define the word may 
be as difficult as to explain the genesis of the 
lightning. Syndicalism is not defined when you 
call it trades unionism, yet it is an evolution of 
trades unionism; neither is it defined when you 
call it Socialism, yet it certainly is a modification 
of Socialism. It is not anarchy, but in some of 
its aspects it seems closely akin to anarchy. 
Syndicalism proclaims for its objective the col- 
lective ownership of the means of production, 
which is the familiar doctrine of state socialism; 
yet syndicalism is different from state socialism, 
and hostile to it, (so much so, indeed, that the 
line of fissure, already clearly discernible, will 
almost certainly result in a separation of ir- 
reconcilable elements) . The propaganda of social- 
ism (I use the term in the sense in which it is 
currently understood) is wholly political. It ex- 
pects to realize its ideals through the eventual 
capture of the machinery of government, and 

[14] 



SYNDICALISM 

while many of its adherents are trade unionists, 
it regards the trade union as more or less of an 
obstacle to its development. SyndicaHsm, on 
the contrary, cares nothing for political success. 
It makes no attempt to secure amelioration of 
industrial conditions through the law-making 
power, and does not seek representation in law- 
making bodies. Syndicalism ignores the state 
as now organized, and expects to destroy both 
the industrial and political organizations at the 
same time and by the same means — by what it 
calls direct action. Socialism seeks to influence 
the action of trades unionists as voters; syndical- 
ism endeavors to control the trade union as an 
industrial group. The theory of syndicalism is 
to make private ownership of the utilities of 
production impossible by making it entirely 
unprofitable. Its method of reaching this result 
is by the general strike, which means cessation of 
work by the entire industrial population and the 
complete immobility of all the instruments of 
production. The general strike would make the 
continuance of private ownership impossible 
because it would make that ownership useless. 
Untilled farms, idle machinery, empty factories, 
immobile transportation facilities — all these pro- 

[15] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR - 

duce no profits and are valueless to their nominal 
owners. The general strike would make the 
existing government obsolete because it would 
make it powerless. Government might enact 
statutes, but it could not enforce them; it would 
have soldiers, but it could not feed them, clothe 
them or move them. The workers would lay 
down their tools as employees; when they picked 
them up again it would be as owners, and the 
social revolution would be accomplished. 

The leaders of the syndicalist movement are well 
aware that the general strike is only a theory. 
But with the general strike as its ultimate object, 
syndicalism gives practical effect to its conceptions 
by tactics designed to continuously decrease the 
margin of profit accruing to the private owner of 
an industry. Wage increases are constantly 
sought because no wage is held to be a just one 
which is less than 100 per cent, of the income of 
the industry. Syndicalism will not be a party to 
agreements for the adoption of wage scales for a 
definite time, for it must be free to strike at any 
time. It is not so important whether a strike 
succeeds or fails of its immediate object. Strikes 
cause loss and decrease profits. If the strike is 
won it is the prelude to another; if the strike is 

[16] 



SYNDICALISM 

lost it is the prelude to another. And there is 
always the possibility that any strike may spread 
from group to group until the general strike is 
accomplished by a series of lesser strikes. 

There remains in the armorium of the syn- 
dicalist one other terrible weapon. At work in- 
side the mill or factory he is more to be dreaded 
than on strike outside. Sabotage will even more 
reduce the profit-making power of the industry 
than the interruptions caused by strikes. Possibly 
some readers do not know the meaning of the 
word; therefore an explanation is permissible. 
It is related that on an occasion a French work- 
man, in a fit of anger, took off his sabot or wooden 
shoe and threw it into the midst of some ma- 
chinery. He was dumfounded at the devastation 
he had caused. The idea of doing injury to ma- 
chinery or product found many applications, 
and the practice was given the name of sabotage. 
So much for the legend. But in ''The Romance 
of Words," by Ernest Weekley, its derivation 
is given as from the verb saboter, to "skimp work.'" 
The sabot (wooden shoe) has, it seems, a secondary 
meaning in popular speech, as referring to any 
kind of an inferior article; hence saboter; hence 
sabotage. The ways in which sabotage can be 

[17] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

applied are limited only by the ingenuity of those 
who apply it. Emery powder can get into ma- 
chinery; alum may find its way into flour; woolen 
or cotton goods may be made defective in the 
weaving; many things may happen in the prepara- 
tion of goods for shipment, and during trans- 
portation. 

Syndicats ouvriers (Workingmen syndicates) is 
the French equivalent for trades unions. This 
use of the word syndicate is somewhat unfamiliar 
to our ears, but it is nearly enough synonymous 
with the word ''association" to convey a self- 
evident meaning. French trades unions of the 
present are divided into two classes, known re- 
spectively as syndicats rouges (those which have 
adopted the revolutionary program), and syn- 
dicats jaunes (those which restrict their efforts at 
improvement within constitutional limits). 

In more or less vague form the idea of a general 
strike had been presented in continental Europe 
from time to time for many years, but its adoption 
as the definite policy of an organized body appears 
to date from 1894. In that year there was held 
at Nantes a joint congress of French trades 
unionists and socialists at which, by a vote of 
65 to 37, with 9 abstentions, the general strike was 

[18] 



SYNDICALISM 

adopted as a policy in preference to political 
agitation. At Limoges, in 1895, an association 
was formed by representatives of those trades 
unions which in the previous year had voted 
affirmatively at the congress of Nantes. This 
association assumed the title of Confederation 
Generale du Travail (since commonly known as 
the C. G. T.), and it was as a noun descriptive 
of the policy of this body that the word syndi- 
calisme came into use. The C. G. T. made but 
little progress until 1902. From that date, how- 
ever, it has exercised a continually increasing 
influence in industrial disputes, until now it is a 
factor of considerable importance. An approxi- 
mate estimate is that one-third of French trades 
unions are affiliated with the C. G. T. {syndicats 
rouges)^ and the remaining two-thirds are of the 
syndicats jaunes. But any such estimate of 
comparative strength must be modified by a con- 
sideration of the forceful and determined spirit 
which actuates the smaller body. The C. G. T. 
is a fighting institution. Also there are no doubt 
aligned with it some unions which are impelled 
more by hope of immediate benefit than by self- 
sacrificing devotion to its principles; while at the 
same time there are unions classed as syndicats 

[19] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

jaunes whose allegiance is no more securely jfixed. 
It is probable that any marked success of the 
C. G. T. would attract many of the syndicats 
jaunes^ while a decisive reverse would mean the 
detachment of some unions now enrolled as 
syndicats rouges. 

The C. G. T. in 1909 declared a general strike 
in aid of the strike of the postal and telegraph 
employees, and in 1910 made a similar declaration 
in favor of the association of railway servants. 
In each case the response was limited, and the 
strikes were eventually settled. But it is not 
likely that the C. G. T. had any illusions as to 
the result, being well aware of its inability to 
enforce its order. But it discounts failure and is 
insensible to defeat. Its action was in accordance 
with the adopted system of syndicalism which 
has been stated by M. George Sorel (a French 
Socialist writer of distinction who has made 
himself its apologist and defender) as follows: 
"By means of methodical economic agitation — 
that is, by strikes systematically and incessantly 
repeated — to lead up to the general strike." 

I have been at some pains to define syndicalism 
because it is here, in organized form, and ener- 
getically pushing its propaganda. The Industrial 

[20] 



SYNDICALISM 

Workers of the World (commonly referred to as 
the I. W. W.) is a prototype of the French C. G. T., 
and teaches identical objects and identical means 
for their attainment. Like the C. G. T., it 
comprises both trades unionists and socialists, 
and has enlisted the extremists in both move- 
ments. I am convinced that trades unionism 
in the United States will sooner or later reach a 
point where it will be compelled to definitely 
decide whether the road it shall take and the goal 
it shall seek shall or shall not be the road and the 
goal pointed out by the I. W. W. The question. 
What shall we do.^ will assume many phases and 
require many answers, but this decision is funda- 
mental, and upon the choice we shall make 
between the mutually exclusive programs of un- 
compromising war and evolutionary development 
will depend the character of all the decisions that 
must follow. 

I do not minimize the features of the program 
of syndicalism which are naturally attractive to 
trades unionists in general, nor those which will 
prove alluring to some among us who are even 
now unconscious syndicalists, although they may 
be unacquainted with the word. I have seen 
the printed opinions of some newspaper writers 

[21] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

on the subject to the effect that among the better 
paid and more thoroughly organized unions 
affihated with the A. F. of L. the I. W. W. can 
make no headway, or can make none unless the 
A. F. of L. is continuously defeated in efforts to 
increase wage scales and better conditions. To 
this opinion I can only partially subscribe. It 
is true that here, as in France, syndicalism will 
gain many converts if it wins victories, and will 
find its ranks depleted if it meets reverses. But 
in large measure the choice will be a matter of 
temperament rather than of affiliation or of 
comparatively favorable conditions. Agreements 
fixing wage scales and schedules of hours for defi- 
nite terms are customary in American industries. 
Agreements for the submission of disputes to 
arbitrating bodies variously constituted, while 
not so common, are also frequently made. But 
there is always an element which is opposed to 
entering into them for the same reason that 
actuates syndicalists in refusing to make any 
agreements, namely, they desire to be free to 
strike at any moment they may deem opportune; 
and this element, whenever and wherever it is 
in control of the governing machinery of its 
organizations, does not hesitate to break agree- 

[22] 



SYNDICALISM 

ments, whether they are for the arbitration of 
disputes or are intended to create a condition of 
stability in regard to wages and hours for a stated 
time. To minds thus constituted so much of 
syndicalist precept as denies the necessity or 
value of such agreements, declines to make them 
and repudiates them when made, will be ex- 
tremely attractive, and will well serve the ener- 
getic organizers of the I. W. W. in their 
work. 

Another proposal, and one which will appeal 
with greater force to a much larger number in the 
ranks of trades unionism, is the conception that 
workers should be organized on the basis of the 
industry rather than of the trade. Much ad- 
vantage may accrue to the I. W. W. if those who 
oppose syndicalism should assume an attitude 
of hostility to this idea, which is the natural 
and evolutionary tendency of unionism. 

Still another doctrine of the I. W. W. which has 
already been received with much favorable com- 
ment by union men, and deservedly so, is the 
declaration that the interests of those whose 
wages were the lowest and whose condition was 
the most pitiable should receive first and greatest 
consideration. 

[23] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

This is a policy as wise as it is generous, and 
embodies a well merited reproach to the strong 
unions which have thus far consistently neglected 
those who, through lack of organization, or be- 
cause of the unskilled character of their employ- 
ment, were unable to help themselves. 

But after due allowance is made for what may 
be commendable in the policy and principles of 
syndicalism, there still confronts us, grim and 
terrible, its declaration of unceasing war; its 
program of strike, misery, destruction and death; 
its assumption that only through this valley of 
the shadow can we attain the sunlit mountains 
of peace and contentment. To quote M. Sorel 
again: '^It is the only process by which society 
can be purged from the evils which now beset ^t, 
and, purified by the fire of revolution, can realize 
its loftiest ideal." 

Reason and conscience declare it is not the only 
way. But it may be made to seem the only way. 
Two forces whose mutual antagonism is deadly 
are exerting pressure from opposite directions 
toward a common point. On the one hand there 
is the terrific energy, the intense single-minded- 
ness and sincerity of syndicalism, which draws up 
plainly and presents powerfully an indictment 

[24] 



SYNDICALISM 

whose counts are vivid pictures of injustice, with 
efiFects varying in degree from ordinary hardship to 
degrading misery. On the other hand there is the 
brutal determination to abate not one jot of 
profitable injustice despite that misery. Those 
who fear syndicalism most and have most cause 
to fear it are nevertheless those who most as- 
siduously give it life and growth. In tempera- 
ment extremists of both classes are alike, and 
against both must we contend. 

Consider the logical consequences of the ^'irrita- 
tion'' strike as a common feature of industrial 
life. With infinite difficulty, after many hard 
battles, some unions have secured recognition 
as responsible bodies with which agreements 
may be made for the establishment of stable 
conditions for definite periods. Some unions are 
still vainly demanding such recognition and still 
fighting for it. There can be no question that if 
peace and stability are necessary to the employer, 
they are equally necessary to the employee. By 
the use of the '' irritation" strike to force con- 
cessions we deliberately destroy all hope of 
stability and steadiness in industry. Chronic 
uncertainty punctuated by periods of violent 
upheaval would become the ordinary conditions 

[25] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

of existence. And it should be remembered that 
employers might resort to the same tactics. The 
initiation of that sort of disturbance might be 
undertaken by them to exhaust our powers of 
endurance as readily as by us to exhaust theirs; 
in either case with results fatal to every gratifica- 
tion that brightens the lot of ordinary people. 
We may have plans we hope to carry out; what 
use to make plans without an hour's certainty 
of opportunity to earn the means necessary to 
their fulfillment? There may be pleasures to 
which we look forward with eagerness; what hope 
of pleasure in a life devoted to unending strife, 
with enforced truces taken only to recuperate 
from exhaustion. We may have duties, such as 
the education of children; what possibility of 
giving our children better opportunities than our 
own in a society so continually convulsed that it 
is doubtful if we can always give them bread .^ 

Look now at the effects of sabotage as a common 
feature of industrial life. All the evils that follow 
in the train of the ''irritation" strike would be 
intensified. Even the periods of truce compelled 
by exhaustion would be rendered more precarious. 
The knowledge on the part of the employer that 
he must protect himself against the destruction 

[26] 



SYNDICALISM 

of his product on its way through the factory and 
to the consumer would necessitate the creation of 
a numerous corps of spies, and this in its turn 
would breed a feeling of universal suspicion. In- 
stead of good will and co-operation for common pur- 
poses, the always impending fear of treachery would 
be paralyzing, and the spies would undoubtedly 
be numerous enough and clever enough to make 
almost all intended actions futile. A further conse- 
quence would be that the damage done and the ex- 
pense of guarding against such damage would be 
added to the cost of products, and would increase 
by so much the burden on ourselves as consumers. 

And if through these two policies the conception 
of the general strike should ever be realized, it 
would not be war with which we would be con- 
fronted. War is too mild a term to describe such 
a state. Imagine every human activity in a 
condition of immobility. Then visualize if you 
can the demons that would be loose: Darkness, 
terror, famine, rapine, carnage, with pestilence 
to crown the cataclysm. Our world would be an 
inferno and we the damned souls in it. 

No; that is not the road to redemption. There 
must be a modus vivendi — a way to live — while we 
work out our destiny, and we must find that way. 

[27] 



IV. BY WAY OF EXPLANATION 

There is in surgery a process known as over- 
correction. If a bone or joint is deformed by 
inclining from a straight line to one side, the 
abnormity is sought to be cured by forcibly in- 
clining the deformed member to the other side. 
Perhaps the principle of overcorrection has been 
applied in the foregoing chapters in the effort 
to discourage violence, and an impression created 
which may have tended to discourage aggressive- 
ness. But the fact remains that organized labor 
must be militant. Those who talk of the interests 
of capital and labor as identical state only a half 
truth so long as the industrial organization of 
society remains as it is. Take any industry at 
all for an illustration. Employers and em- 
ployees are mutually interested in creating as 
great a product as possible. The fruit of their 
labors forms a fund for the maintenance of the 
industry and of those engaged in it. But when 
the division of that fund is made, then their 
interests are diametrically opposed. The greater 

[28] 



BY WAY OF EXPLANATION 

the share of either party, the less will be that of 
the other. It is the function of the labor union 
to secure for the workers the largest possible 
share of that fund. To continue the effectiveness 
of the union for that function it has become 
necessary that we consider, What shall we do? 

I have some suggestions to offer, none of them 
startling or dramatic, none of them wholly 
original. Sometimes an inventor makes a new 
combination of old ideas. Perhaps that is the 
utmost that I can claim. It is an axiom that 
humanity seeks to satisfy its desires along the 
line of least resistance. Along the line of least 
resistance I would guide organized labor if the 
power of imparting convictions is vouchsafed 
to my pen. 

We have heretofore depended principally on 
one weapon, and many times have I heard its 
use defended, and a tendency to use less wasteful 
substitutes hotly condemned, on the ground that 
the strike! the strike! the strike! was the means 
by which our predecessors won the position we 
occupy, and was the only efficient weapon by 
which we could retain it. I have heard arbitra- 
tion agreements denounced, because they limited 
the right to strike. I have heard officers abused 

[29] 



PROBLEMS OP ORGANIZED LABOR 

because they showed a disposition to compromise 
comparatively trifling matters, instead of im- 
mediately resorting to the strike, or adopting a 
tone that might easily lead to one; and I have seen 
shops lost by strikes that were avoidable. 

The fact is, our problem has changed, and the 
tactics of the pioneers of unionism are not ap- 
plicable to the conditions of to-day. The em- 
ployers have learned unionism from us, and they 
have bettered the instruction. We must be 
pioneers again, and if we make full use of the 
resources at our command, we will find no diflS- 
culty in continuing the onward march, tem- 
porarily checked by adherence to outworn ideas. 

Let me recall to the attention of the reader the 
following passage : 

"But there is much likelihood that the wider 
significance of organization will remain unnoticed, 
and the intensive cultivation of its possibilities 
remain neglected, as has been the case in the 
past. In other words, we gather an army and 
then fail to provide it with equipment and 
drill." (p. 3). 

Organized labor has made itself a powerful 
force by an extremely limited application of the 
principle of co-operation. How plainly wisdom 
indicates that the course it should pursue is an 

[30] 



BY WAY OP EXPLANATION 

extension of the same principle. Our mistake 
hitherto has been that we have confined our con- 
certed action solely to the narrow field of our 
interests in production. We have raised wages, 
reduced hours, and more or less bettered working 
conditions. In our hands we had and have an 
implement with which marvelous results have 
been accomplished, even though such limited 
use has been made of it; yet we have failed to 
grasp the fact, elemental and clearly perceptible, 
that the same implement is capable of producing 
results measurable only by the uses we make of it. 
But it has seemed to be the tacit assumption 
that the trade union has no functions outside of 
the shop or outside of those things that directly 
pertain to the shop. The mistake of most of us 
has been to regard the matter of employment as a 
detached thing, unrelated to all the other in- 
cidents of daily life, instead of an integral part of 
that life. Every attempt to widen the field of 
co-operative action is bitterly opposed on the 
ground that the union should not depart from 
its proper sphere, which such minds conceive 
to be confined absolutely to the questions that 
may arise directly between themselves and em- 
ployers. The force of circumstances is slowly 

[31] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

compelling a recognition of the error of that view; 
it is being brought home to us that the wages, 
the volume and the conditions of employment 
are indirectly but none the less powerfully influ- 
enced by every aspect of organized society. We 
are beginning to understand that how we spend 
our money affects our interests as vitally as how 
we earn it; hence the adoption of those imperfect 
instruments, the label and the boycott. And it 
may be hoped that eventually we will understand 
that, living in a society the members of which are 
all interdependent, we cannot separate our 
interests in any relation of life from our interests 
in every other. 

If I were asked to put into one sentence my 
answer to the question, What shall we do? I 
would say. Co-operate for mutual benefit and 
protection in many ways as you already co-operate 
in one. Let that sentence stand for my thesis, 
and in the discussion which follows I will en- 
deavor to show how I would equip and drill the 
army we have gathered. 



[32] 



V. ORGANIZATION BY INDUSTRY 

Shall organization in the future be in the form 
of allied industrial groups rather than by crafts? 

Twenty years ago this question was a new 
one; to-day it is being hotly debated; ten years 
hence the answer will be unequivocal. 

The reply of radical trade unionism the world 
over is an uncompromising affirmative, whether 
it be given by the C. G. T. in France, the Syn- 
dicalists in England, or the I. W. W. in America. 
But the more conservative unionism hesitates. 
It debates the pros and cons; it seeks to discover 
which is the better plan. It apparently assumes 
that either form of organization will serve, and 
that the question to be decided is one of com- 
parative merits. 

Loosely joined federations of allied trades, both 
local and national in scope, have long existed, 
and the experience of these bodies furnishes the 
basis of fact upon which both proponents and 
opponents rely for concrete illustrations of their 
respective contentions. Many things have hap- 

[33] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

pened in the history of these federations which 
give point to the arguments of those in the op- 
position, and there have been instances in which 
federations have formed and later have dissolved 
by reason of the clashing selfishnesses of the 
elements which composed them. The wisdom 
of "going it alone" is a matter of heated and 
bitter controversy. 

It might seem proper here to summarize the 
arguments pro and contra, but it would be a waste 
of time and space to do so. In reality, the debate 
is vain. Organized labor will inevitably form 
itself into industrial groups, not as a matter of 
choice, but through the irresistible pressure of 
necessity, and because the reason for doing so 
is the fundamental reason which lies at the 
foundation of unionism. It was the obvious 
need for mutual assistance that led to the forma- 
tion of trades unions; it is the same need, still 
obvious, that will lead to the formation of in- 
dustrial unions. 

In nearly all industries to-day employers are 
banded together in protective associations, and 
they act as a unit when any one of their number 
is involved in an industrial dispute. They make 
contracts, frequently overlapping, with the various 

[34] 



ORGANIZATION BY INDUSTRY 

craft unions employed in their industry, and to 
the extent that they are united in action while 
the unions act without coherence, there exists 
a condition analogous to that of the single em- 
ployer of olden days facing his unorganized em- 
ployees. The results that follow may best be 
understood from a practical illustration which I 
will take from my own trade. 

The newspaper publishers of Chicago are mem- 
bers of a national association which has a local 
branch in that city. Their laws provide that if 
any one of them, by reason of a strike, is unable 
to publish his paper, the others shall make no 
attempt to publish their papers. They have 
further agreed to limit the size of their papers 
to the size of the one in diiSSculty. If a union 
shall cease work for any cause in the shop of one 
of its members, the association as a whole will 
refuse to employ any members of that union. 
Such a strike may come during or at the termina- 
tion of a contract period. The contracts are 
made with the association, and provide that in 
the event of a breach in any shop, the others are 
absolved from further observance of its terms. 

This is in effect a sympathetic strike by em- 
ployers. Incidentally I will call attention to the 

[35] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

fact that the sympathetic strike by unions has 
never failed to bring forth strident denunciation 
as an unjustifiable interference in matters which 
did not concern them. But let that pass. Things 
being as I have described, in the event of a strike 
in the shop of one of those publishers, how about 
the other unions which have members in that 
shop? May they in their turn refuse to work 
because of the strike or lockout which has been 
enforced against a sister union? Not at all, for 
their contracts bind them for a stated period, 
and the contracts are made without any reference 
to each other. The sympathetic strike of the 
publishers is therefore in entire accordance with the 
contracts they have made with the various unions, 
while the sympathetic strike of any of the unions 
in support of another would constitute a breach. 

In the following narrative it is not intended 
to discuss the merits of the dispute, but simply 
to show the advantage which this unity of action 
gives to the association of employers so long as 
the respective unions engaged in the industry 
manage their affairs without similar regard to 
their mutual interests. 

The pressmen in the office of the Chicago 
American struck. This action led to the locking 

[36] 



ORGANIZATION BY INDUSTRY 

out of the men in the pressrooms of all the other 
papers. The pressmen's union appealed to the 
other unions for support. The stereotypers and 
delivery wagon drivers immediately responded. 
The publishers claimed this to be a breach of 
contract on the part of these two organizations, 
and locked out those of their members employed 
in the respective estabhshments. The composi- 
tors and mailers, after stormy discussion, voted to 
remain at work. (In passing it is worthy of 
mention that the compositors had walked out 
from the American the previous year; the pub- 
lishers had limited their editions to the same size 
as the American was able to get out; none of the 
other unions struck w4th them, and the matter 
was adjusted by President Lynch, of the Inter- 
national Typographical Union, who ordered the 
men back, and secured obedience to his order 
through his firmness and the support of the union 
in meeting assembled.) 

To continue the story. President Berry, of 
the International Pressmen's Union, sanctioned 
the strike in Chicago, and ordered strikes on all 
Hearst papers throughout the country, which 
order was obeyed in some cities and disregarded 
in others. President Freel, of the International 

[37] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

Stereotypers' Union, disavowed the action of the 
stereotypers, and eventually annulled their charter 
because they would not return to work. President 
Lynch, of the International Typographical Union, 
was successful in preventing a strike of composi- 
tors, although again he had to combat an element 
eager to get into the fight. 

Consider the situation — pressmen and stereo- 
typers calling the other unions traitors and scabs. 
Stereotypers of Chicago thrust out of fellowship 
with their comrades in the rest of the country. 
Pressmen in several cities threatened with annul- 
ment of charters because they had not obeyed 
President Berry's order to strike. An element 
among the compositors restive because they had 
not been permitted to join the striking pressmen 
and stereotypers. Dissensions and animosities 
that a generation will scarcely suJBBce to heal 
dividing the crafts concerned from each other, and 
bringing disruption among discordant elements 
within themselves. All this while a united 
publishers' association serenely faces the future. 
Said I not that the employers had learned union- 
ism and had bettered the instruction? 

It has been urged by the publishers that the 
pressmen had no right to strike in the first in- 

[38] 



ORGANIZATION BY INDUSTRY 

stance, while the union declares that it was the 
publishers who broke the agreement. Whichever 
statement is true has no effect on my contention. 
The other unions were bound in any case not to 
strike during the life of their respective agree- 
ments, and the merit of a strike by a sister union 
would have no valid effect upon the terms of the 
contracts, because of the manner in which they 
were made. 

Instances of similar character might be multi- 
plied, but they would mean simple iteration, 
and would add nothing to the weight of argument. 
This single illustration is suflBcient to prove an 
intolerable and destructive condition. On the 
one hand, no consideration of whatever nature 
should lead us into repudiation of engagements 
entered into in good faith. No matter what the 
loss or injury, a contract once made must be lived 
up to during its term. If we have made a bad 
bargain, experience must teach us how to make 
better ones. Any temporary advantage accruing 
from broken contracts can never compensate 
for the enduring benefits that flow from the 
knowledge by the parties of the other part that 
we are good for any agreement we may enter into. 

On the other hand, it is heartrending to see 
[39] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

disruption and animosity separating those whose 
every interest is identical; perhaps to see one 
craft beaten down while the others are not only 
prevented from aiding it, but must actually assist 
the process by remaining at work. Everything 
in such a situation must inure to the benefit of 
employers so long as it continues. 

These are the reasons that make it certain that 
the evolution of the trades union movement will 
compel either a close alliance or an absolute merger 
of allied crafts, no matter what differences of 
opinion may now exist as to its advisability. A 
close analogy to the situation may be found in 
the condition of the thirteen original states im- 
mediately preceding the adoption of the Constitu- 
tion. Like all autonomous bodies, each one was 
reluctant to give up any of the powers it possessed, 
and the smaller states were extremely appre- 
hensive of the effects of the legislative pre- 
ponderance that would necessarily be given to the 
larger. But the desperate condition of internal 
affairs plus the threatening attitude of certain 
European powers made union a matter of self 
preservation. For precisely similar reasons the 
craft unions must surrender all or a part of the 
autonomy they have so jealously guarded, must 

[40J 



ORGANIZATION BY INDUSTRY 

discard their animosities and suspicions, and must 
find a basis for unity of action.* 

Syndicalism is uncompromising in its advocacy 
of organization by industry, and syndicalism is 
right. In this manner only can the equilibrium 
between employers and employees be restored. 
This development is the natural one, because it 
is along the line of least resistance; co-operation 
is always along the line of least resistance. 

* Confirming what has just been written, just before going to 
press I read of the completion of a national organization to be 
known as the Structural Alliance, made up of the Bridge and 
Structural Iron Workers' Union, the Bricklayers' Union, and the 
Hoisting Engineers' Union. Under the constitution of the new 
association none of the trades can strike without the consent of the 
others. The announcement was made at Cleveland, Ohio, on 
September 20, 1912. 



[41] 



VI. ARBITRATION 

What form shall such industrial organizations 
take? 

What tactics shall they adopt? 

The answers to these questions are not simple. 
Both the form and the tactics of the organizations 
will depend upon the element that may control 
them. An industrial union in the hands of the 
I. W. W. will be a very different body, with very 
different aims, from one working along the tradi- 
tional lines of collective bargaining. The aims 
and tactics of syndicalism have been sufficiently 
explained in a previous chapter, and it is self- 
evident that the industrial group will be a far 
more efficient machine to carry out those tactics 
and accomplish those aims than the trade or- 
ganizations. But that fact should not prejudice 
the opponents of syndicalism against organization 
by industry, for it is equally self-evident that the 
industrial group will be far more efficient for the 
purposes of collective bargaining than the trades 
organizations. A difference that suggests itself 

[42] 



ARBITRATION 

at once is that machinery for the adjudication 
of disputes is certain to be a feature in the event 
of control by what may be called the old-line 
trades unionists, while it is sure to be entirely 
rejected by those who regard any attempt at 
agreement with employers as treason to the cause 
of the employees, and who do not consider them- 
selves as bound when they have entered into an 
agreement. 

The terms upon which craft unions should 
amalgamate are incapable of discussion in an 
essay of this kind, wherein only general principles 
can be considered. Varying conditions and speci- 
fic obstacles will no doubt be found in every in- 
dustry; hence the arrangement of details must be 
given over to the parties directly interested. The 
most common cause of difference will probably 
be the weight to be accorded each of the con- 
stituent unions in whatever central body may be 
created. DiflScult as this question may seem, it 
is not an insuperable obstacle if approached in a 
spirit of amity and mutual confidence. And the 
latter frame of mind should be the more easily 
attained when it is considered that it will be im- 
possible for the larger trade unions to oppress 
or betray their weaker confederates without 

[43] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

doing irreparable injury to themselves. How 
true this is may well be learned from the ex- 
perience of the United States. States like Dela- 
ware, Rhode Island and New Jersey were fearful 
of the effects if they intrusted their rights and 
liberties to a congress in which their representation 
would be comparatively feeble. But the ex- 
perience of one hundred and twenty-five years 
has demonstrated that their fears were ground- 
less, and that the national legislature, whatever 
other sins it may be charged with, has never 
shown any inclination to discriminate against the 
smaller members of the union. 

Another objection to federation which is fre- 
quently urged by opponents is that any one of the 
craft unions, acting irresponsibly, may precipitate 
a strike and involve all the others, whether they 
approve of the strike or not. This need not 
necessarily be the case. To refer again to our 
national model: From the moment that the re- 
spective states became members of the Union, 
the national league known as the United States 
alone possessed the sovereign attribute of de- 
claring war. In like manner the central body of 
the industrial union should exercise this and all 
other powers which directly concern the welfare 

[44] 



ARBITRATION 

of the whole industry, each craft union retaining 
jurisdiction only over such matters as are solely 
related to its own affairs. The amount of dues, 
the amount and nature of benefits, questions of 
internal organization, and so forth, would be 
matters for its own decision. 

When the industrial union has been formed, 
and the character of its control has been made 
manifest, then the spirit and manner in which 
such a union shall approach employers becomes 
the next question for consideration. Should 
that control be revolutionary in sentiment, it 
would be needless to discuss this matter. No plan 
for the adjustment of disputes is compatible with 
the declared attitude of the I. W. W., and the 
course of events would be determined by the 
fortunes of war. 

But those of us who expect to obtain our just 
share of the blessings of life through peaceful 
processes, and who will not consider other methods 
until those processes are absolutely exhausted, 
recognize that agreements of some kind are neces- 
sary, and that such agreements must provide 
means for the adjustment of disputes. Several 
methods are available, all of which have both 
merits and defects. Compulsory arbitration 

[45] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

through government officials is one such method. 
By this means contending parties must reach an 
adjustment of some sort. But the function of 
arbitration is not only to make adjustments, but 
to find such bases for making them that both 
parties shall be satisfied that substantial justice 
has been done between confiicting claims. Offi- 
cial arbitration has met with bitter opposition 
from both sides where it is in vogue; but that is 
not conclusive against it, for it is well known that 
voluntary arbitration has been assailed in the 
same manner. No form of arbitrament, from 
the trial by combat to hearings by courts, can 
ever satisfy all parties, but the best argument 
against compulsory arbitration is the psychological 
one that men always do with better grace what 
they are free to do than what they are constrained 
to do. 

I have in mind two systems of voluntary 
arbitration which have both well served the pur- 
pose of preserving peace, but which may be 
contrasted on account of an essential difference. 
The cloak industry settles disputes through the 
medium of a joint board of employers and em- 
ployees. In the event of a failure to agree, three 
persons not connected with the industry are 

[46] 



ARBITRATION 

added to the joint board and are given the de- 
ciding voice. The objection most commonly 
heard against this method of settlement of disputes 
is that the arbiters drawn from outside the in- 
dustry are incompetent to decide many contro- 
verted matters because of lack of technical 
knowledge, and that their decisions sometimes 
reflect that ignorance to an extent which makes 
them dangerously unsatisfactory in that they 
create violent prejudice against the principle of 
arbitration. 

Quite contrary to this is a method which has 
been employed by the International Typographi- 
cal Union and the Newspaper Publishers Associa- 
tion of North America, which provides for a joint 
board of equal numbers from both sides, this 
board obliged to continue consideration until a 
decision is reached. The most common objection 
to this method is that intolerable delays are expe- 
rienced, months and sometimes years elapsing 
before an adjudication is agreed upon,* 

*Since the above was written the system of arbitration between 
these two bodies has been greatly modified. Local branches of 
the publishers' association or local unions may decline the inter- 
national arbitration, or may make provision for local arbitration. 
Also, outside parties may be called in if the parties in interest cannot 
arrive at a settlement. 

[47] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

A much more complex system is one used in 
Germany, having been originated there in the 
printing industry. The plan has been in opera- 
tion since 1896. From a pamphlet issued by Mr. 
Henry W. Cherouny, of New York City, himself 
an employing printer who has always evinced a 
spirit of fairness and conciliation toward his 
employees, the following statement of the form 
of government of the German Printers' League 
is taken, the employers being as much a part of 
the league as the journeymen: 

"1. The Printers' Congress consists of nine 
employers and nine journeymen, and meets only 
on particular occasions for the purposes of making 
collective contracts and supervising the execution 
of the Common Rule. The members of the Con- 
gress are elected by each of the nine districts into 
which the empire has been divided, corresponding 
to our Congressional election districts. Tenure of 
ofl&ce is three years. 

''2. The National Joint Commission wields 
the executive power of the League. It is com- 
posed of three employers and three employees, all 
appointed by the Congress. 

"3. The District Joint Commissions are com- 
posed of the members of the Congress living in 
the districts and of the two chairmen of the 
trade courts domiciled in the printing center. 

''4. The Trade Courts have jurisdiction in 
all diflSculties arising in individual oflSces working 

[48] 



ARBITRATION 

under the common scale. They consist of at least 
two or at most five elected members from each 
part, and meet at least twice a month. Eligible 
are only union employers and union journeymen. 
One employer and one journeyman preside and 
appoint two secretaries. The court is competent 
when two judges from both camps are present. 
Only an equal number from both sides can vote; 
if there happen to be present more members 
from one side than of the other, the surplus mem- 
bers can act only in an advisory capacity. A 
tie of votes is equal to a dismissal of the case. 
The costs are borne by the defeated parties. 
A dismissed case can go to appeal. There are 
now 35 trade courts in operation. 

"5. The Common Labor Bureaus have to take 
care in the first instance of union men and union 
ofiices, and then of such as are willing to sign 
the common scale and to take the obligation in 
writing. Provision for union men who lost their 
situations through loyalty is the first duty. The 
bureaus are under control of the Joint Commis- 
sion. In case of serious difficulties the two chair- 
men of the branch oflSce can stop the use of the 
labor bureau until settlement is reported in 
writing. Difficulties arising from the operations 
of the labor bureau go before the Joint Commis- 
sion, whose decision is final. The expenses are 
borne by both parties to the common scale. Union 
men and union offices are served without expense. 
There are 46 Printers' Labor Bureaus in operation. 

"6. The Common Trade Schools. Apprentices 
are obliged to attend school three years, and are 

[49] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

at liberty to take a fourth year's course, which is 
free to all, and which is a kind of high school in 
the art of printing." 

The result of the workings of this agreement is 
that 90 per cent, of the printing offices of the 
empire are union shops. 

By the year 1905 the graphic, metal, wood, 
building, clothing, textile, transportation and 
food industries of Germany were organized more 
or less upon this model. 

But I am not advocating any particular plan 
to the exclusion of any other. The one point of 
insistence is that a reasonable basis for main- 
taining ordinary intercourse must be found, 
nothing doubting that we shall progress faster 
and better on that line than by arousing pluto- 
cratic dogs of war, who, when they once taste 
blood, have always as raging a thirst for more as 
any "direct actionist" who ever expected to estab- 
lish social justice with bomb and torch. 



[50] 



VII. THE STRIKE 

In the days that have been strikes were gener- 
ally of limited local extent. A single trade in a 
shop, or at most, a trade in the shops of a single 
town or city, were involved. The disturbance 
created hardly a ripple beyond the circle of those 
directly concerned, and the claim is true, as 
made by the men whose faces are turned to the 
past, that the percentage of successful strikes 
(i.e., strikes which in whole or in part brought 
to the unions the specific gain they were striking 
for) was sufficiently large to justify the dependence 
placed on it as the principal weapon of unionism. 

But other times, other conditions. There 
has been a distinct decrease in the efficiency of 
strikes entered upon by unions of employees 
because unions of employers are now more 
powerful and better equipped. In some industries 
concentration has reached the point where the 
opportunity to find employment is confined to 
the service of a very few corporations. The 
ejffect of these circumstances is twofold: It makes 

[51] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

the chances of striking employees far more 
dubious, and it tremendously widens the field 
which may be affected by any strike, until at 
present strikes of national and even international 
extent are comparatively frequent. Conversely, 
the sufferings and miseries caused by strikes, to 
those directly engaged and to those who are 
involved without voluntary action, are enormously 
increased. 

These concurrent tendencies — concentration of 
ownership or close aflSliation on the part of em- 
ployers, with organization by industry on the 
part of employees — must continuously operate 
to make strikes and lockouts more and more 
terrible industrial convulsions. The forces aligned 
against each other will be titanic, and the injuries 
the contending parties will be able mutually to 
inflict will be proportionate to the magnitude 
of their organizations. Like wars between na- 
tions, industrial conflicts will become tremendous 
and destructive to a degree hitherto inconceivable. 

Can the strike be discarded.^ No! And prep- 
arations to use the strike as a last resource are 
dictated by the commonest prudence. Referring 
again to the conduct and methods of the nations, 
we see that while they make arbitration treaties and 

[52] 



THE STRIKE 

establish arbitral courts, yet prudence leads them 
to prepare for the contingency of war. In like 
manner we must be in a position to strike effective- 
ly if need be, while neglecting no means to avoid 
the necessity. Also, although this essay is ad- 
dressed to organized labor, in this chapter it is 
permissible to say a word to organized capital. In 
both camps may be found men of similar tempera- 
ment, whose impulse it is to seek nothing else and 
nothing less than the utter annihilation of the 
other, and to seek it by the application of what 
each believes they possess — the power of superior 
force. The violence of one is matched by the 
cold-blooded brutality of the other, with better 
excuse for the syndicalists urged by need than for 
their prototypes urged by greed. Those of us on 
either side who know that we must live with 
each other, and who are willing to permit the slow 
and peaceful course of evolution to shape the 
jBnal form which industry shall assume, are bound 
to strive against both. 

The strike must then be regarded as our last 
dread resource, prepared for with all the foresight 
at our command. Precisely in proportion to the 
self-restraint we exercise in its use, and to the 
provident care with which we make ready for 

[53] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

the hour in which there may be no alternative, 
will it be effective when we do have recourse to it. 
By toil and sacrifice our predecessors laid the 
foundation for the unionism of to-day, and toil 
and sacrifice must we be prepared to give when- 
ever the occasion demands it. But as solemnly 
as it is in the power of language to do so, I would 
adjure those whose province it is to order or 
advise the strike to feel the responsibility for their 
counsel or command. Let every arrow of priva- 
tion or misery that may be entailed touch them 
in imagination before it touches their followers 
in reality. Finally, let our attitude be that ad- 
vised by Polonius: 

"'Beware 
Of entrance to a quarrel, but being in, 
Bear it that the opposed may beware of thee/' 



[54] 



VIII. INSURANCE BENEFITS 

Any proposed extension of the traditional 
activities of trades unions invariably meets with 
determined opposition. A large and influential 
element persists in regarding the function of the 
union as confined solely to the matters of wage 
scales, hours of labor and shop conditions. They 
rely upon the theory that concentration of effort 
in these directions brings the only results worth 
striving for, while the inclusion of mutual benefit 
features means diffusion of energy and loss of 
effectiveness. These votaries of the *^good old 
ways'' never abandon this position concerning 
any proposition until dislodged by the unanswer- 
able logic of events, and then retreat only to throw 
up similar breastworks at the next turn in the 
road, from behind which they will make just as 
stubborn resistance to the next innovation. 

The concrete propositions upon which issue is 
joined relate to insurance against sickness, old 
age and death. Unemployment might also be 
considered, but there are arguments against that 

[55] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

form of insurance that cannot be urged against 
the other three; so in order to prevent confusion 
it may be considered by itself. 

In Kmited degree various unions have created 
provision for the protection of their membership 
against the consequences of one or more of these 
inevitable aflflictions; but speaking generally, 
unionism has hitherto been reluctant to enter 
upon these fields. The favorite argument that 
fraternal orders and insurance companies can 
best look after that business, while we have enough 
to do to take care of strictly union business, 
seems conclusive to many; while probably a 
larger number are easily aroused by the conten- 
tion that personal liberty is invaded; that the 
kind and amount of insurance they shall carry 
is a matter of personal concern, and that if they 
have enough already or do not want any at all, 
it is not the province of any organization to 
compel them to purchase a protection of which 
they do not feel the need. 

The answers to both these arguments are plain 
and convincing. Benefit insurance is a business- 
like proposition for trades unions, feasible as to 
cost and of incalculable value for organization 
purposes, and it is not an invasion of individual 

[56] 



INSURANCE BENEFITS 

rights. Those who find themselves aggrieved 
on this latter account would do well to remember 
that every association of human beings for mutual 
benefit is only possible by the surrender of some 
part of their individual freedom of action. The 
political community is based upon that principle, 
and voluntary associations of every character 
must of necessity conform to it. If the general 
welfare in the case under discussion is best served 
by the adoption of insurance features, then the 
enforcement upon all members of laws to that 
end is no more an invasion of individual right 
than the enforcement of an order to strike, or 
of an assessment to maintain others on strike. 
The individual may disapprove of the strike or 
the assessment, but he submits because he knows 
that his best interest requires the existence of 
an association with power to order and maintain 
such measures, even though he may upon some 
occasions disagree with the exercise of that jx>wer. 
It follows, then, that the man who willingly 
surrenders some individual freedom of action 
when he joins a union, for the purpose of securing 
the much greater advantages that attend con- 
certed action, should regard this question of in- 
surance in the same light as he does other things 

[57] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

that the union takes under its jurisdiction, and 
should not consider it an invasion of his personal 
rights if it is shown that such features tend to the 
upbuilding of the organization and to the con- 
sequent advantage of every individual in it. 

To the man who honestly thinks he is carrying 
the limit of insurance, it may be pointed out that 
the sum usually carried is pitifully small (speak- 
ing now of mortuary insurance) and the addition 
of even a few hundreds may be of extraordinary 
importance. A $1,000 policy only capitalizes a 
year's earnings of the average mechanic, and I 
venture to assert that comparatively few have 
so much as $2,000; several hundred dollars to the 
family in the time of stress are much more useful 
than the pennies paid for them while the head of 
the family is in health and working. As for 
sick benefits, the stricken workman needs more 
money when he is sick than when he is well, 
and a wise man would never think he had too 
much until he had provided an insurance equal 
to his usual earnings, and not one in ten 
thousand does that. 

It remains to prove that insurance protection 
against these common exigencies of life can be 
furnished by a union at a cost which makes them 

[58] 



INSURANCE BENEFITS 

good business propositions and at the same time 
essential to organization work. It is common 
knowledge that many workingmen are notoriously 
improvident in these matters, and this not because 
they do not earn enough to devote some part of 
their incomes to such purposes, but because they 
seem actually to begrudge money so spent if 
there is no immediate return. There are also 
unfortunately many whose earnings are so small 
that they feel unable to spare any part of them 
for purposes not immediately necessary. These 
two classes furnish the numerous cases of want 
and misery which union men are continually 
called upon to relieve by voluntary subscriptions. 
Thus the generous fraction of the membership 
assumes a burden which should of right be carried 
by the whole, and those who need relief must ask 
from the charity of their fellows that which 
would foster self-respect if received as a right. 
Those whose careless improvidence exposes them 
to the full force of the blasts of misfortune are 
temperamentally just as indifferent to the expendi- 
ture when under the laws of their union they are 
accustomed to paying the cost of protection as a 
fixed charge included in dues. Those whose 
limited earnings are responsible for the lack of 

[59] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

prudent provision may be protected at nominal 
cost if the insurance fund is collected upon the 
basis of a percentage of earnings rather than at a 
flat rate. Considerations of brevity make it in- 
expedient to take the many sides of these collateral 
questions and argue them all out in detail, but I 
cannot forbear saying that the percentage plan 
is the only truly fraternal plan, and for that 
reason best for organizing purposes. The man 
who earns most should pay most. Objectors 
will not fail to point to this as an injustice. In 
reality, it is the truest justice. If this method 
of taxation is not employed, the aged, the infirm, 
the unemployed might find the assessment a real 
burden, and not only their insurance, but their 
membership would be imperiled by inability to 
pay it. At the same time the member earning 
good wages is scarcely conscious that he is paying 
an assessment. Also, the man in receipt of a 
good scale or more must remember two things in 
this connection: One is that his scale depends in 
large measure upon the loyalty of the less fortu- 
nate; the other is that he does not know when he 
will be one of the less fortunate himself. The per- 
centage plan is a practical application of the doc- 
trine, "Each for all and all for each."" If a man 

[60] 



INSURANCE BENEFITS 

buys insurance from a company or a fraternal 
order, and for any reason, after any period of 
time, is unable to maintain his payments, his 
policy lapses. The union man, if the system of 
percentage on earnings is adopted, obviously pays 
no assessments when he is not earning anything, 
although his right to benefits is not in any degree 
curtailed by that circumstance. The value of this 
method as an organizing argument is self-evident. 
Let us now consider the question of cost: 
Enough experience has been gained in the pro- 
vision of various insurances to show that the 
unions are able to fulfil their obligations at a cost 
which compares favorably with that charged 
for equivalent service by insurance companies 
and fraternal orders. The Cigarmakers' Inter- 
national Union is by odds the most progressive 
body in this respect among unions, both in the 
variety of benefits and the amounts paid. In 
the comparisons here made it must be remembered 
that cigarmaking is not regarded as a healthy 
trade, and the International Cigarmakers' Union 
cannot select its risks for obvious reasons; yet it 
will be seen that they maintain benefits at a cost 
lower than organizations whose particular business 
it is. That union has been in this business of 

[61] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

insurance for thirty-two years, and its results 
are worthy of respect. It pays sick benefits of 
$5.00 per week for thirteen weeks in any year; 
the highest cost per member in any year has been 
$4.13. Compare that with the Odd Fellows, 
Knights of Pythias and other societies. They 
usually pay $5.00 a week for thirteen weeks and 
half benefits for thirteen more, the dues almost 
invariably being $8.00 per year. Need the union 
fear this comparison.^ 

Take now the death and total disability benefit. 
A graduated benefit is paid, with a maximum of 
$550 for fifteen years' membership. The high- 
est cost per member in any year was $5.03, 
but the average cost was much less. The New 
York Life Insurance Company charges $19.62 
per $1,000 ordinary life at age 21, which would be 
$9.80 for $550. While it is true that the union 
does not pay $550 until membership has continued 
fifteen years, it is also true that most men do not 
seek insurance at age 21, and the comparison in 
favor of the union would be greater the longer 
the taking of a policy is delayed. 

The International Typographical Union on 
April 1, 1912, instituted a graduated mortuary 
benefit, with a maximum of $400 for five years' 

[62] 



INSURANCE BENEFITS 

membership. The cost per member is one-half of 
one per cent, on earnings, which averages a little 
less than $5.00 per member, and judging by mor- 
tality tables of the union for twenty years, this 
assessment will be suflScient to meet all obligations. 
The New York Life rate of $19.62 at age 21 would 
mean a rate of $7.85 for $400; and thus again 
the union need not fear comparison. 

Reasons why the cost of this insurance is so 
comparatively cheap were made manifest when 
the mortuary benefit was established by the 
International Typographical Union. With the 
exception of hiring a few additional clerks at 
international headquarters, the existing adminis- 
trative machinery of the union was ample for 
taking care of the additional business. No addi- 
tional salaries were paid on its account (except 
the few clerks already mentioned), no addi- 
tional rent was incurred, no commissions were 
paid, in short, expenses of administration were 
practically nil. Another is that the rates of life 
insurance companies are based on the American 
Mortality Table, while it is acknowledged that 
for many years past their experience has been 
better than that indicated by the table. These 
facts go far toward explaining how rates so 

[63] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

greatly in favor of tlie unions may be well within 
the margin of safety. 

The Cigarmakers' International Union has 
also an unemployment benefit of $3.00 per week. 
This has been paid for twenty-two years, and the 
average cost per year per member has been 
$2,003. The cost fluctuates widely, according 
to the state of trade. The highest cost was 
$6,434 (1896) and the lowest per member per 
year was $0,393/^ (1903). Of course, this cost 
cannot be compared with any insurance sold 
elsewhere, because an unemployment benefit is 
purely for organizing work. 

I have cited these few facts to prove that trades 
union insurance is a sound business proposition, 
regardless of its value in securing and retaining 
members. But my contention is that even if 
such insurance were actually more costly than if 
purchased elsewhere, the contingent advantages 
are so great that it should nevertheless be a part 
of the activity of every union. I have been 
assured by responsible officers of the International 
Cigarmakers' Union that the sick and death 
benefits they pay have been of inestimable value 
in holding their membership in the face of adverse 
circumstances that might otherwise have caused 

[64] 



INSURANCE BENEFITS 

disruption. It must be obvious that every 
additional benefit contingent upon membership 
in a union is an additional tie to be broken before 
a man can bring himself to the point where he is 
willing to throw away all that membership means. 

It will be urged that the cost of these benefits 
may frighten prospective members. But there 
is no substantial basis for alarm on this account, 
because persons seek membership in a union for 
industrial reasons, and the man who needs the 
protection of a union will seek it; also because 
new members get a valid return for their money, 
and the arguments that appeal to the present 
membership of a union for the adoption of these 
forms of mutual assistance would be equally 
convincing to the man about to join. 

A complete system of benefits should include 
provision for aged and incapacitated members. 
All that has been urged heretofore is applicable 
to old age pensions, but that branch of the subject 
requires special consideration because there are 
circumstances surrounding it which will soon 
make it a burning question for organized labor, 
while sick benefits and mortuary insurance remain 
more or less subjects for academic discussion. 

Every man who is reasonably well informed will 
[65] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

know that in Europe the protection of the super- 
annuated workman against absolute indigence 
has been viewed as a question of national concern, 
has been oflScially studied, and is now one of the 
functions of government. With Germany and 
Great Britain leading, there can be little doubt 
that all Europe will follow in this disposition of a 
vital matter. The arguments pro and con which 
may be offered in relation to this system of govern- 
ment supervision of old age insurance may be 
omitted here, for there is no present probability 
that the Government of the United States or of 
any state will accept the view that the care of the 
superannuated workman is a duty of society and 
a proper exercise of governmental functions. 

Not only is there no present likelihood of the 
adoption of the European solution of this problem 
in the United States but there are indications 
that one of two solutions may be evolved in this 
country, either of which, if it becomes general, 
will practically preclude governmental assumption 
of what is so clearly a social necessity that some 
way of providing for it must be iound. 

In Germany, Great Britain and France the 
necessary fund for old age pensions is obtained 
by contributions from the Government, the 

[66] 



INSURANCE BENEFITS 

employer and the employed. The collection from 
each party is compulsory and the fund is at all 
times under official control. The workman's 
right to change his employment is not in any way 
interfered with, as the payment of his pension 
is in no sense dependent upon his continuance 
in any particular employ. The pension is a 
right secured to him by law, and not a gratuity 
given by an employer. The employer's power to 
discharge and the employee's right to leave are 
both unimpaired. 

In this country there is coming into vogue a 
system of old age pensions by which this vital 
principle is weakened and may be destroyed. 
Large corporations, dominating highly centralized 
industries, have formulated pension systems to be 
maintained entirely at their own cost, but which, 
as a more than compensating advantage, are 
held entirely under their arbitrary control. The 
employees of these corporations can only become 
beneficiaries of such pension funds if they remain 
in their positions continuously until the age of 
retirement is reached. Therefore, to the extent 
that the prospect of a pension is permitted to 
influence their action, they have surrendered 
their industrial freedom. But while this unbroken 

[67] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

period of service is demanded as a condition 
precedent to the grant of a pension, it does not 
confer the right to one. The employee desiring 
a pension may not quit his employment under 
any circumstances, but the employer retains 
the right to discharge him at any time and for 
any reason, and is not bound either to give him a 
pension when the age of retirement is reached or 
to continue it if given. 

The pension plan of the United States Steel 
Corporation, which became eflfective January 1, 
1911, may be regarded as the pattern upon which 
such systems will be modeled. The fund is to be 
administered by a board of trustees, upon which 
the employees are not given representation, and 
in the selection of the members of which they have 
no voice. The regulations are drawn with great 
care to prevent an employee from establishing 
either a right to a job or a right to a pension. 
That these objects have been thoroughly ac- 
complished is evident from the following pro- 
visions: 

Article 22: *^ Pensions may be withheld or 
terminated in case of misconduct on the part of 
the beneficiaries or for other cause sufficient 
in the judgment of the board of trustees to war- 
rant such action." 

[68] 



INSURANCE BENEFITS 

Article 24: "The pension plan is a purely 
voluntary provision for the benefit of employees 
superannuated or totally incapacitated after long 
and faithful service and constitutes no contract 
and confers no legal rights upon any employee." 

Article 26: ''Neither the creation of this fund 
nor any other action at any time taken by any 
corporation included under the provisions of the 
fund, or by the board of trustees, shall give to 
any employee the right to be retained in the 
service, and all employees remain subject to dis- 
charge to the same extent as if this pension fund 
had never been created." 

The pension plan of the International Harvester 
Company provides: 

Article 14: "Neither the establishment of this 
system nor the granting of a pension nor any other 
action now or hereafter taken by the pension 
board or by the officers of the company shall be 
held or construed as creating a contract or giving 
to any officer, agent or employee the right to be 
retained in the service or any right to any pension 
allowance, and the company expressly reserves, 
unaffected hereby, its right to discharge without 
liability, other than for salary or wages due and 
unpaid, any employee, whenever the interests 
of the company may in its judgment so require." 

The corporations creating these pension systems 
are not actuated by altruistic motives. Their 
object is to buy something, and that something 

[69] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

is a quality they are pleased to call "loyalty." 
Whether provisions like the above are calculated 
to foster true loyalty is more than doubtful, but 
the real purpose of the fund is not doubtful. 
The pension offered is expected to be an insurance 
against strikes, and the expense of the system is 
but the premium paid for that insurance. It is 
no secret that the Steel Corporation has left 
nothing undone in furtherance of its purpose 
to completely eliminate organization among its 
employees, and its pension system is but one means 
to that end. How successful it will be from the 
corporation's viewpoint it is yet too soon to say, 
but it is not an evidence of wisdom on our part 
to underestimate its possible influence. A young 
man, free from family responsibilities, to whom 
the idea of diminished efficiency by reason of 
advancing years seems as remote as eternity, 
may give little heed to the loss of a pension from 
the enjoyment of which he is separated by an 
intervening lifetime; but it is quite another 
matter with the man upon whose head the snow 
blossoms are beginning to appear, and who may 
have to his credit a considerable period of service. 
He may hesitate long before casting away this 
provision, even with the uncertainties that hedge 

[70] 



INSURANCE BENEFITS 

it about, and this hesitation may be further 
emphasized by the difficulty he is Ukely to ex- 
perience in finding new employment in competi- 
tion with the younger men. To such a man the 
necessity for a pension is no longer remote, and 
the influence of the one so offered may prove at 
some crucial moment to be decisive. 

Many large corporations have already adopted 
systems similar to the one outlined. Many more 
will probably do so. Let us ask ourselves very 
seriously if the general adoption of this system of 
pensions would not be a solution of the problem 
which is full of menace to our organizations. If 
it is to the advantage of employers to offer a 
provisional pension, surrounded by a dozen 
quaUfying ifs and buts, would it not be to the 
advantage of trades unions to offer a pension on a 
straightforward basis, absolutely secured to the 
union man as a right, on the sole condition of 
continuous membership for a term of years .^ If 
"union busters" regard such a proposition as 
good business for themselves, why should not a 
far better proposition be good business for us? 

Any pension which is contingent upon the 
continued service of the workman in a particular 
employment is an injustice to the workman and 

[71] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

a danger to the organization. The way to meet 
that danger and to overcome that injustice is to 
create a pension system in every union, and to 
that extent protect the industrial Hberty of 
those who are or who may become members. If 
this argument is well taken, it would seem that 
pensions must in self-defense be made a part of 
the organization work of trades unions. 

The report of the American Federation of Labor 
for 1911 (p. 90), gives a table purporting to show 
what benefits are paid by afl&liated unions. This 
table makes no mention of old age pensions, 
leading to the inference that none are paid. But 
the table is incomplete at least in this regard, 
that the International Typographical Union has 
maintained a pension fund since March, 1908. 
The Amalgamated Society of Carpenters and 
Joiners and the Amalgamated Society of Engi- 
neers, both English organizations with branches 
on this side of the Atlantic, also pay old age 
pensions. Apart from these I know of none. 
An assessment of one-half of one per cent, on 
all earnings of members of the International 
Typographical Union enables the payment of 
$5.00 per week to incapacitated members. The 
fund has shown a surplus of receipts over ex- 

[72] 



INSURANCE BENEFITS 

pcnditures in each year since its estabKshment, 
and the report of the Secretary-Treasurer to the 
convention of 1912 shows a balance in hand of 
$522,886.39. But this large accumulation is a re- 
serve against that time when we may reasonably 
expect a great increase in the number of pensioners 
through the action of natural causes. Thus, an 
average of $4.96 a year secures to each member 
an annuity of $260 a year, in case of necessity, 
with no obligation for the payment of assessments 
if for any reason earnings are cut off. And the 
dividend in the shape of greater fraternalism 
cannot be calculated. 

Insurance against unemployment would seem 
to be as necessary as any other of the benefits dis- 
cussed. But there seem to be greater difficulties 
in the equitable distribution of a fund for this 
purpose than arise in the handling of the others. 
The stumbling block is invariably to be found in 
the fact that some men become parasites, being 
disinclined to work in any case, and making no 
pretense at all of seeking employment when they 
are assured even so small an allowance as an 
out-of-work fund can afford. My own local 
union has had considerable experience in the main- 
tenance of such a fund, and that experience was in 

[73] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

great measure discouraging. We found that a 
number of men drew in each year the full amount 
that was permitted under the laws regulating the 
fund, and that these men could best be described 
as ''panhandlers." The abuse in our case event- 
ually became so flagrant that the fund was 
abolished, upon the report of an investigating 
committee to the effect that the majority of bene- 
ficiaries belonged to this dissolute class. Never- 
theless, it is the fact that unemployment insurance 
is and long has been maintained by European 
unions, and in this country the Cigarmakers' 
International Union has conducted such an in- 
surance for twenty -two years, and such comment 
as has reached me does not indicate so scandalous 
a condition as compelled its abandonment by 
Typographical Union No. 6. It must be ad- 
mitted that in this particular form of insurance 
the problem is complicated by the considerations 
presented, and it is difficult to do justice by 
worthy members without doing injustice to those 
who bear the burden; nevertheless, the difficulty 
is not insuperable, and certainly careful regulation 
would reduce abuses to a minimum. 

But, omitting unemployment insurance from the 
list, I am firm in the conviction that the chain of 

[74] 



INSURANCE BENEFITS 

benefits, each of which tends in some degree to 
make a union card a more valuable possession, 
will, if taken together, exercise a cumulative 
influence which it would be difficult to over- 
estimate. And under this head, as under every 
other in the constructive plan presented, the 
central idea is mutual assistance and co-operation. 
In this activity, as in all the rest, co-operation is 
the Kne of least resistance. 



[751 



IX. THE APPRENTICE 

It is a frequent contention of organized labor 
that the best workmen are to be found within its 
ranks. The contention has much support in fact, 
for it would otherwise be manifestly impossible 
for organized labor to command any recognition 
whatever. But if it is a source of the strength of 
unionism that it holds the allegiance of the ma- 
jority of good workmen, it is no less a source of 
weakness that it embraces so many mediocre 
and poor ones. There can be no disagreement 
with the statement that if the standard of work- 
manship for the general average of union work- 
men was considerably raised, the potency of 
unionism would be greatly increased. 

The employer who agrees to employ none but 
union workmen has a valid grievance if he finds 
any considerable percentage of his workmen more 
or less incompetent. The ready reply that he can 
discharge them neither meets his grievance nor 
adds to the desirability of a contract with the 
union. On the contrary, to the extent that he 

[76] 



THE APPRENTICE 

has cause for complaint on this ground the con- 
tract is distinctly depreciated. 

Under conceivable circumstances he cannot 
discharge them, or can do so only at a loss. In 
cases of emergency, where some work must be 
done within limited time, or in seasons when work 
is plentiful and the demand for men is equal to 
the supply, or even temporarily exceeds it, very 
inferior workmen are retained if the need for 
their service is so pressing as to overcome the dis- 
satisfaction caused by their incompetency. An- 
other reason why they cannot be discharged 
without loss is that many union scales provide 
that a man engaged must be paid for a certain 
time, whatever the unit may be, a day being the 
smallest unit permissible. This rule is a just 
one, for men ordered to report should be assured 
of something. But it would appear to be equally 
just that men sent in answer to a call addressed 
to union headquarters should be competent to do 
the work for which the call itself assures their 
pay. 

We demand and enforce a closed shop wherever 
possible. There could be no greater force behind 
that demand than a high standard of competency 
in the men who make it. And such a standard 

[77] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

would conduce to the peaceful settlement of the 
question of the closed shop, at least in industries 
requiring skill, for the line of least resistance for 
the employer in such a case would be to turn to a 
sufficiently numerous organized body of efficient 
workmen, and to contract with them for such 
help as he requires, thus solving one of the most 
vexatious problems with which he must contend— 
the selection of a capable force of workmen. 

The establishment of a high standard of com- 
petency is an object worthy of the best eJ0Forts of 
the unions, both for its favorable effect on the 
prospects of individual members and the tre- 
mendously increased strength of the unions as 
organizations. How shall that object be attained.'^ 

As the twig is bent so will the tree incline. The 
competent workman is the growth of the well 
trained apprentice. Natural adaptability and 
quickness of perception quite often enable a 
neglected apprentice to make of himself a com- 
petent journeyman, but the results of neglect 
are nevertheless painfully apparent in every 
trade. In this country the boy who learns a 
trade "steals" it, as the phrase goes. Sometimes 
he has nothing more to complain of than indif- 
ference and neglect; sometimes he has to overcome 

[78] 



THE APPRENTICE 

open or overt hostility. In either case it is a 
policy which in its results is equivalent to race 
suicide on the destiny of nations. To the extent 
to which responsibility for this condition may 
justly be laid at our door we are demonstrating 
both selfishness and shortsightedness to an inex- 
cusable degree. A generation of apprentices 
grows to manhood every five years, and the 
strength and permanence of our institution is 
dependent primarily upon the absorption of the 
principles of co-operation by these boys, and then 
upon their ability as workmen; for there can be 
no successful refutation of the dogma that the 
union is negligible unless it includes the major 
fraction of competent artisans, and it becomes 
proportionately more powerful as that fraction 
approaches 100 per cent, of the number of de- 
sirable men engaged in the industry. 

Many a man who is a competent artisan to-day 
knows that he has really learned his trade after 
he became a journeyman, by the exercise of his 
faculties of observation and imitation, rather 
than by the teaching to which he as an apprentice 
was entitled. Others, whose unaided capacity 
to learn was not equal to the task, remain un- 
fortunate incompetents through life. It is true 

[79] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

that some boys will make no effort to learn, but 
are contented to loaf their way through their 
junior years, heedless of the penalty they will be 
called upon to pay when manhood is reached, 
but even that fact is capable of correction if in- 
telligent and systematic training is enforced upon 
boys by the supervising authority of the union. 

Employers must accept a share of the respon- 
sibility for this state of affairs. In their desire 
to transmute the boy's services into the largest 
imm-ediate cash return to themselves, the boy is 
utilized during all or a greater part of his ap- 
prenticeship at tasks requiring no great skill, or 
else is taught a single operation, and kept con- 
tinuously employed in its repetition. The boy 
of good natural capacity and praiseworthy ambi- 
tion will absorb theory and will "steal" practice, 
but too many contentedly sink into the rut so 
conveniently laid down for them. Some in- 
dividual workmen are imbued with that generous 
spirit which makes them regard it as a duty to 
assist the eager learner; some are so lacking in 
human fellowship as to be capable of actually 
obstructing the boy in his progress over what is 
at best a thorny path. But most men are simply 
indifferent — willing to answer a question or give 

[801 



THE APPRENTICE 

some instruction if the assistance is not too fre- 
quently requested, but not at all likely to dis- 
commode themselves or to interest themselves. 
It is clear, then, that this important matter 
cannot be left to the employer, the workman or 
the boy himself. The union alone can do much 
toward remedying the evil, but the ideal method 
is that of co-operation between the union and the 
employer, with definite regulations rigidly en- 
forced. In this country the International Typo- 
graphical Union has made a praiseworthy be- 
ginning in the direction of proper training by the 
establishment of a correspondence course which 
has justified itself by excellent results, both for the 
apprentice and for the journeyman who sought 
its benefits. But good as this course is, it can 
never reach the root of the evil and will never 
eradicate more than a small percentage of in- 
competency. Being optional, and costing a little 
money, it cannot do its beneficent work until it 
has first overcome the inertia which is the principal 
stumbling block to all efforts at human better- 
ment. Praiseworthy effort is indeed made to 
accomplish this by widespread advertising in the 
printing trade of the unquestionable usefulness 
of the course; still, the response is but a limited 

[81] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

one as compared with the whole number who need 
instruction. 

It is both the duty and the interest of a union 
to exercise supervision over the training of ap- 
prentices. We may assume that most employers 
would give hearty support to a serious effort to 
remedy this evil, and in the cases of such as 
would not, there can be no doubt as to which 
side public sentiment would take if a controversy 
arose between a union seeking to secure adequate 
training for apprentices and an employer who 
wished to exploit them for his own profit, to the 
destruction of their prospects. Agreements be- 
tween the parties should contain definite pro- 
visions as to the course of instructions to be laid 
down for apprentices, and there should be periodi- 
cal examinations to determine proficiency, by a 
board upon which both employers and employees 
are represented. The details of such a system 
would necessarily be determined by the special 
circumstances surrounding each industry; but in 
every instance haphazard compliance with or 
evasion of the agreement should be prevented 
by placing specific duties and responsibilities 
upon proper ojfficials or representatives of the 

[82] 



THE APPRENTICE 

union and of the association of employers. 

Inequality of ability will make natural grada- 
tions of competency among boys, no matter 
whether well or ill trained. But an apprentice 
who goes through such a course of preparation 
with nothing better than a rating high enough to 
pass him, is even then certain to be an artisan of 
skill sufficient to enable him to meet the ordinary 
requirements of his employment. A further im- 
portant advantage of such a system is its auto- 
matic elimination of the incapable and undesirable. 
The boy who cannot be taught and the boy who 
will not learn, the mentally or physically deficient, 
and the idle or vicious, will develop those character- 
istics, and it should be a function of the examining 
board to exercise discretion in such instances. 

Boys so taught and watched over by a union 
will absorb unionism with every breath; will see 
its benefits demonstrated to their own advantage 
from the hour they begin their apprenticeship; 
will find themselves protected against favoritism 
and assured of equal opportunity. Parents will 
endeavor to have their boys brought up under 
such auspices, and the men such boys will grow 
into will seldom fail to be both a credit to and a 
bulwark of the union which thus guarded them. 

[83] 



X. CO-OPERATIVE TRADING (WITH AN 
ADDED FEATURE) 

To raise wages is not the only means of making 
the members of a union prosperous. Under 
conceivable circumstances raising wages may be 
of no benefit whatever. For more than a decade 
there has been a steady increase in the cost of 
living. Trades unions have made this increased 
cost of living the basis of demands for higher 
wages, and have in the more successful instances 
secured increases of from 10 to 20 per cent, during 
a period in which the average increase in the cost 
of commodities has been 35 per cent, and the 
increase in food stuffs (the largest single item 
in the expenditure of the average family) has 
been as high as 70 per cent. 

If the unions had succeeded in uniformly raising 
wages in the same degree as prices had advanced, 
they would at the same time have made the lot 
of less fortunate persons still harder to bear. 
If the whole working population had been success- 
ful in securing added compensation equal to the 

[84] 



CO-OPERATIVE TRADING 

advance in prices, none of them would have been 
benefited; the demand for an increased wage 
would begin again, and the vicious circle be 
traversed once more. Not only more wages, but 
more for our wages should be our object. 

The basic fact of higher cost of living being 
incontrovertible, increases have in many cases 
been obtained, in some few instances being volun- 
tarily granted. Do these increases in wage, then, 
bring about such a betterment in burdensome 
conditions as give reasonable contentment to 
those who receive them.^ 

Every increase in wages is at once added to the 
cost of the product, and always with additional 
charge for the greater capital employed. A couple 
of illustrations will serve to show addition to 
selKng cost for which increased wages are the 
excuse. In the first example a clothing manu- 
facturer was accustomed to add 25 per cent, to the 
manufacturing cost of his product. Wage in- 
creases made a suit that had cost $5.00 to manu- 
facture stand him $6.00. He recouped himself, 
not by adding the extra dollar to the selling cost, 
but by adding the same 25 per cent, to the new 
manufacturing cost. Hence the suit was not 
raised $1.00, but $1.25, and the manufacturer 

[85] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

got a larger margin than before. The other in- 
stance was far worse. When the coal miners 
secured an increase of 10 per cent, in 1903, that in- 
crease was based on the cost of a ton of coal 
ready for shipment, which was about $1.80, 
hence the increased wage was about 18 cents a 
ton. The coal companies (the railroads) im- 
mediately increased the cost of a ton of coal 
10 per cent. But the price of coal was $5.00, 
and 10 per cent, added to that sum made the ton 
of coal cost $5.50. Thus the outlay of 18 cents 
in wages was made the excuse for extorting 50 
cents from the consumer. Within the present 
year a similar piece of manipulation which added 
6 cents to the wage cost of a ton of coal was the 
basis for an increase of 25 cents in selling price. 
There need be no doubt that wage increases are 
universally transferred in this manner to the 
consumer, and nearly always with an additional 
impost. Under such circumstances wage in- 
creases are but a doubtful benefit to the mass of 
workers. 

Many causes have been assigned for the 
terrifying increase in living cost which we must 
face. Scientific economists blame it on the 
enlarged production of gold. "Union busters " lay 

[86] 



CO-OPERATIVE TRADING 

it all at the door of unions. Land speculation is 
not without blame, for speculative increases in 
land values and the locking up of land-using 
opportunities must enhance the cost of all land 
in use, which in turn reacts upon the cost of all 
products. The tariff gives some thrifty gentle- 
men an opportunity which they are quick to see 
and take advantage of. Devious burrowings 
into the public purse were estimated by Judge 
Howard, of the Supreme Court of the State of 
New York, as responsible for the wasteful dissipa- 
tion of 40 per cent, of the amount collected. 
Monopolistic ownerships and wasteful use of 
natural resources are a principal factor. Each 
of these has its influence on the cost of living, 
and no one of them can be awarded the bad 
eminence of being the sole cause. 

But there is one infliction which is the source of 
as much of the extortion which is bleeding us white 
as any of them, perhaps more than any single 
one. That is the toll taken by the middleman — 
big and little — who stands between producer and 
consumer and unconscionably robs both. While 
all the other causes mentioned above cannot be 
directly attacked by the unions, this last matter 

[87] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

of the middleman is one evil that it is in our power 
greatly to abate. 

Organized labor has hitherto devoted its at- 
tention almost entirely to matters concerning 
production. Wage scales, shop conditions and 
the like have been subjects of union legislation. 
The influence of the problems of distribution upon 
our welfare has been ignored until recently, 
when the boycott and the union label have been 
more or less exploited in the attempt to exercise 
some degree of control over distribution. Since 
it was a limited application of the principle of co- 
operation that has won for trades unions so much 
success as they have attained, it should be obvious 
to the meanest intelligence that further advance 
can only be gained by broader applications of the 
same principle. 

It has been shown in previous chapters that the 
advancement, or even the maintenance, of the in- 
terests of trades unionism was made increasingly 
difficult by the growth of organization among 
employers. The realization of this fact led to a 
search for expedients to stimulate the use of 
union made products as such, and so enhance the 
influence of unionism and increase its member- 
ship. Particularly it became evident to union 

[88] 



CO-OPERATIVE TRADING 

men that the expenditure of our earnings^ which 
might be made so powerful a factor in upbuilding 
our organizations, was in major part actually being 
spent for the strengthening and enrichment of 
non-union plants and workmen, and in some 
measure to the advantage of bitterly active 
opponents. So the label and boycott came to be 
included in the policies of organized labor, and it 
is now pertinent to inquire to what extent they 
have been successful instruments for the purpose 
for which they were designed. 

The boycott, being a direct antagonism of 
definite persons and products, was sure to arouse 
violent resentment and any kind of retaliation 
that was in the power of those attacked. It was 
one of those policies that could not fail to become 
a matter of judicial review, and it was reasonably 
certain that courts would in the main render 
decisions unfavorable to its legal status. Al- 
though no pronouncement has as yet been made 
by the United States Supreme Court as to the 
legality of the boycott, it is wise to anticipate 
that when the question is squarely before that 
tribunal, the decision will be against us. It is 
possible to make a defense of our right to boycott, 
and such a defense was written by me and pub- 

[89] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

lished in The Independent of January 28, 1909. 
But it would lead us too far afield to consider that 
point in this connection. What we are now con- 
cerned with is whether the boycott is the best 
instrument, or even a good instrument for the 
purpose in view. The effort to carry on boy- 
cotts, being thus certain to involve us in legal 
diflficulties, it remains to be seen whether the 
results obtained are worth the expenditure of 
money and energy necessary to obtain them. 

It was my fortune to take a very active part 
in the boycott instituted against the products of 
the Butterick Company by Typographical Union 
No. 6 in 1906, and later carried on by the Inter- 
national Typographical Union. This boycott 
was, I verily believe, better organized, more de- 
termined, and more damaging to the parties it 
was aimed at than any other I have knowledge of, 
not excepting that against the Buck Stove and 
Range Company, which is more widely known 
only because of the adventitious circumstances 
that brought the highest oflScials of the American 
Federation of Labor into court. Not only in the 
United States and Canada, but in Cuba, Germany 
and Austria the International Typographical 
Union cut into the sales and captured the cus- 

[90] 



CO-OPERATIVE TRADING 

tomers of the Butterick Company. Wherever a 
typographical union was organized, there, in 
greater or less degree the boycott was pushed. 
The expected court proceedings were in evidence 
at all times. There were arrests, injunctions, ac- 
tions for criminal contempt, etc. In short, I 
doubt if a more thorough trial of the eflSciency of 
the boycott has ever been made. 

Now, what about results .^^ That the Butterick 
people were considerably damaged they them- 
selves admitted. Eventually the Butterick house 
was unionized again, but it is not possible for us 
to say to what extent the boycott was responsible 
for that consummation. It is within my knowl- 
edge, however, that it had been decreasing in 
intensity for two years before an agreement with 
the company was reached, in 1911, and that at the 
time of settlement the boycott was practically 
dormant. 

I was very active in this matter, and from the 
experience then gained I have reached definite 
conclusions. We expended a large amount of 
money; how large I do not know. There was a 
continuous distribution of printed matter and of 
comparatively expensive novelties bearing appro- 
priate inscriptions. There were speakers sent to 

[91] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

tour the country. There was an organizer whose 
sole duty it was to further the boycott. There was 
a prominent lawyer engaged by the year. So 
far as money could compass our object, we were 
not niggardly. But money is only one of the 
essential factors a union needs in the conduct of 
an affair of this kind. Far more than money, 
it must have the enthusiastic devotion of its 
members to the continuous, laborious and un- 
pleasant work needful to make the expenditure 
of money effective. This, with a few exceptions, 
I found it impossible to get. And even these few, 
in the course of time, finding themselves unsup- 
ported by the great majority, began to get luke- 
warm and at last ceased to labor in a field so 
vast and so deserted. There can be no doubt 
whatever that if the bulk of the membership 
had been as devoted as our self sacrificing band 
of a few hundreds, who for nearly four years 
gave time and energy to the work, the results 
would have been tremendously greater. But this 
apathy being so widespread among our own 
membership, it can easily be imagined what sort 
of inertia we encountered when appealing to the 
membership of other unions and to the general 
public. It was not that we had no success; the 

[92] 



CO-OPERATIVE TRADING 

Butterick Company is the best witness to the 
contrary. But it is scarcely believable how un- 
remittingly we had to labor to save what we had 
done one day from becoming useless the next. 
And this fact eventually led to the abandonment 
of the boycott and the slow recovery by the 
Butterick Company of the ground it had lost. 
Therefore my opinion is that no boycott can 
completely and permanently accompKsh the result 
sought, and very few will do nearly as much in 
that direction as the one here spoken of, which 
finally became a failure. 

Let us now consider the results of label ex- 
ploitation. Unlike the boycott, there is no direct 
attack on any person or product in pushing a 
union label, and hence the feature of personal 
bitterness and legal conflict is absent from this 
work. But the inertia previously complained of 
is even more to be dreaded. It is easier to interest 
the average man in a fight than in an abstract 
duty, and that very note of hostility so dominant 
in the boycott brought about results that an 
appeal to support a label because he ought to 
could never bring. The great diflSculty, in large 
cities at least, of finding a store where label 
goods are sold, is almost an insurmountable objec- 

[93] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

tion. Few men and fewer women are heroic 
enough to spend time and carfare to get a union 
label on their purchases. Of course, if all union 
men and those dependent on them were filled with 
a spirit of unwavering determination to buy only 
label goods, a demand so insistent would lead to 
the creation of markets where it could be supplied. 
But we all know how far short the union army 
falls of such devotion. Another serious objection 
is that label goods are often either inferior in 
quality or more expensive. This charge is un- 
deniable. The unions state the conditions of 
wages and hours upon which the use of the label 
is permitted, but they have no voice as to quality 
or price. Both manufacturers and middlemen, 
in localities where there is a genuine demand for 
label products, load on all the traffic will bear, 
being well aware that the label covers a multitude 
of sins. But the result of this fact is to create a 
prejudice against label goods even among union 
men, and as for the general public, it would be 
a persuasive orator indeed who could induce them 
to pay more money for less value out of sympathy 
with unionism. 

The advertising of a label, like the advertising 
of a boycott, is very expensive. And also, like 

[94] 



CO-OPERATIVE TRADING 

the boycott, the personal devotion of the mem- 
bership is essential to success. The labor at- 
tendant upon keeping it before the public must 
not be permitted to lag, or the effect is disastrous. 
Yet with all this, it is a question whether the 
return is a respectable equivalent for the outlay 
of money and energy. The hatters' label is 
probably a notable exception to this rule, and 
in a less degree the labels of the printers and cigar- 
makers. The latter are really marvels of perti- 
nacity in their label work, yet withal I am inclined 
to believe that their results are no more than 
moderately successful. 

This is not an attack upon the present instru- 
ments of organization work. Until better means 
are found, it is impossible to dispense with them. 
But we should not be content with the assumption 
that boycott and label are the best devices for 
creating markets for union products, and thus 
stimulating union growth. The considerations 
above presented lead me to the conclusion that 
the manner in which boycott and label exploitation 
is conducted is wasteful and unscientific, in that 
it is lacking in the element of definiteness. There 
is no systematic arrangement or plan for the 
attainment of well understood purposes, but only 

[95] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

haphazard and unconnected efforts^ tremendously 
laborious and expensive^ directed against an 
inertia that is invincible. It is time, therefore, 
to seek a method which cannot be condemned by 
courts, and which will economically and thor- 
oughly achieve the results vainly sought through 
the label and the boycott. 

After the collapse of the Butterick boycott I 
read some literature concerning the origin and 
growth of co-operative societies in England, 
France and Belgium. I will not weary you with 
statistics, and yet the figures are more eloquent 
than words could be in presenting the enormous 
advance made by these societies, until now they 
are not only retailers whose operations are com- 
parable to those of the greatest merchants, but 
they are wholesalers and manufacturers as well, 
who daily increase the scope of their activities. 
These facts I have pondered long, until now I 
should like to give you my conception of how we 
may apply the century of wisdom gained by 
experience in Europe. 

Our problem is to build up our organizations 
by inducing the consumption of goods made 
by our members. If while doing this we can 
at the same time reduce the cost of living for 

[96] 



COOPERATIVE TRADING 

ourselves and as many others as will join us, by 
the partial or total elimination of one of the 
great factors in swelling that cost, we will have 
done a work of vital importance for trades union- 
ism and for humanity as well. 

Surely any proposition that holds out a promise 
of such a consummation should be respectfully 
received and earnestly considered. 

My proposal is that a great co-operative society 
should be formed, to be controlled and directed 
by the international unions. Individuals should 
be debarred from holding stock, and also any 
corporate bodies other than trades unions. The 
government of the society should be in a board of 
directors representative of the various unions 
engaged in the enterprise. The object of a co- 
operative society is to cheapen the cost of products 
by eliminating the profits and greatly duplicated 
running expenses of the middleman. This society 
would seek the same object, but in addition thereto 
and of at least equal importance therewith, it 
would have the object of assuring all union men 
that the wages they were spending were buying 
products made by themselves, and that thus 
they were gaining all the benefits accruing from 
co-operative trading, plus the even more valuable 

[97] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

one of building up their organizations and securing 
employment for themselves. 

Consider all possible objections that can be 
urged against the label and the boycott, and see if 
they would not be eliminated by the formation 
of such a society. 

1. The goods handled by that society would be 
union made. Thus every union man could pur- 
chase union goods without the physical weariness 
and vexation of spirit which now attends a 
search for such articles. 

2. No court could find an infringement of anti- 
trust laws, or an illegal interference with the 
rights of others, in the operations of such a society. 

3. There would be no need for the expenditure 
of vast sums of money and laborious efforts to 
advertise a boycott or a label. The plan would 
be automatic. While a manufacturer employed 
union labor he could sell his goods to union labor 
through the society. If he declared an "open 
shop," that market would be closed to him com- 
pletely and immediately. 

4. The profits from the co-operative trading 
society would go into the pockets of union men, 
less expenses of administration, instead of to 

[98] 



CO-OPERATIVE TRADING 

middlemen, who so frequently are avowed or 
secret enemies. 

5. Many persons to whom we now appeal to 
look for a label or uphold a boycott as a matter 
of sympathy would in such a case give us their 
support without solicitation, for the purpose of 
sharing in the profits. 

6. The complaint that label goods are so fre- 
quently inferior to other goods at the same price 
(which is largely true because unscrupulous manu- 
facturers know that the label will sell the goods), 
will be avoided, because such a society, making 
enormous purchases, would be in a position to 
demand proper value for its money. 

7. Greatest of all, how thoroughly we would be 
observing the advice of Rabbi Wise, to ''Organize! 
organize!! organize!!!" Who can conceive of a 
method more certain to bring men tumbling 
into the union fold than the fact that their 
employers must have union men to make things 
for this tremendous market. 

Look what it cost the International Typo- 
graphical Union in the fight with the Butterick 
Company! Look at the fight the hatters had to 
make to save their label! Look at the inferior 
cigar the blue label of the cigarmakers is com- 

[99] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

pelled to cover, because the union can stipulate 
wages and hours, but not material! Look at the 
abasement we must suffer in begging middlemen 
to please give us an opportunity to buy union- 
made goods, which request is so frequently refused 
with scorn! Look at the thousands poured into 
the pockets of lawyers to defend us in court against 
attempts to put us in jail because we ask each 
other to refrain from buying non-union products! 
And then consider that each of these difficulties 
would melt like snow before the summer sun if a 
great union co-operative society were in existence. 

What are unions but co-operative societies? 
What human progress was ever attained save as 
a co-operative measure? When will we learn 
that the purchasing power of our wages is a lever 
to which all our other activities are as naught? 

Sufficient basis for the formulation of a plan can 
undoubtedly be found in the co-operative socie- 
ties of Europe. Co-operative banking, co-opera- 
tive retailing, wholesaling and manufacturing 
have all emerged from their period of probation. 
That which is known as the plan of the Rochdale 
pioneers is the model commonly used in Europe 
for retailing, and would probably furnish such a 
society as is here advocated with the essential 

[100] 



CO-OPERATIVE TRADING 

features requisite to success. Such modifications 
could be made as the varying circumstances 
might require. For example, the capital neces- 
sary for a co-operative store is there furnished by 
the individual co-operators; in a society such as the 
one under consideration it would be contributed 
by the international unions as co-operators, in 
order to maintain control for the purpose of 
insuring the marketing of union-made goods ex- 
clusively. The dividend-paying feature, based 
upon the amount of purchases, should certainly be 
retained, and there is no reason to doubt that it 
would be as effective in attracting customers as it 
has proved to be on the other side of the Atlantic. 

The American Federation of Labor maintains 
fraternal relations with the Farmers' Educational 
and Co-operative Union of America. Suppose 
there was progress on co-operative lines in both 
these bodies. Does it not create a thrill to only 
imagine the co-operative society of producing 
farmers selling its product to the co-operative 
society of consuming union men, and vice-versa, 
with not a middleman anywhere between.^ Could 
heaven be much better than that? 

I am not dreaming. I do not expect that such a 
society as this will spring full grown and full armed 

[101] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

into the arena of life's struggle. I do not look 
for the far-reaching results I have described the 
day after such a society may be organized. I 
know that this is a vast undertaking, requiring 
honesty, ability and patience. But I know also 
that in the army of labor those qualities may be 
found. 

Some may ask me what detailed plan of co- 
operation I have in mind. My answer will be 
the same as in the matter of organization by 
industry: I advocate no plan to the exclusion of 
any other. Should the international unions of 
North America adopt this suggestion, able men 
could study and report on the best manner of 
carrying it out. 

Only this is the point of insistence again: the 
line of least resistance is the line of co-operation. 
And no form of co-operation upon which we may 
enter, no policy which we may adopt, can even 
faintly compare with the social, political and 
economic advantages which would be consequent 
upon this control of the expenditure of our 
earnings. 



[102] 



XI. RELATED THINGS 

Our survey has hitherto concerned itself with 
those functions of the union which bear directly 
upon the upbuilding of the organization and upon 
the conditions which affect employment. Those 
who hold to a narrow conception of the purposes 
and scope of the union will argue that the ques- 
tion, What Shall We Do.^ has been redundantly 
answered now. 

Men gathered together in that marvelous com- 
plex we call society are so inextricably inter- 
dependent that only distortion can result from 
an attempt to fix the status of a man or an associa- 
tion without due consideration of these mutual 
reactions. This is a truism so obvious that it is 
sufficiently established by a mere statement. 
Therefore, the symmetry of our inquiry requires 
that we shall at least briefly reflect upon the 
relations of unions and union men to society in 
those aspects not directly connected with the 
shop. 

To get a living is the first necessity of man; to 
exercise his proper weight in the government 

[103] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

under which he lives is the second; and these two 
are one. It is idle to say that political institutions 
have no influence on economic conditions. Hence 
the union and the individuals who compose it 
have a vital interest in the politics of their com- 
munity. How shall that interest find expression .^^ 

In my view the question resolves itself into 
the acceptance of one of two alternatives: Should 
the unions as organizations and the individuals 
who compose them segregate themselves into an 
exclusive political organization; or should they, 
on the contrary, avoid any semblance of regarding 
themselves as a class separated in aims and in- 
terests from the rest of the community? 

Before setting down my own ideas I beg leave 
to say that in this, above all other matters treated 
in this essay, I desire not to appear dogmatic. 
My opinions are sincerely held, and have not been 
lightly reached; in that spirit they are offered 
for such consideration as they may deserve. In 
that spirit I approach the writing of what I find 
to be the most difficult half dozen pages in the 
book, and while I do not blench from criticism, 
I hope that mj critics may be free from rancor, 
for I assure all who may read this that I feel 
none. 

[ 104 ] 



RELATED THINGS 

"Labor" parties having their inception in local 
central bodies, and seldom growing beyond their 
confines, are sporadic eruptions mechanically 
manufactured. Upon rare occasions, as in the 
campaign made by the United Labor party in 
New York City in 1886, with Henry George as its 
candidate for Mayor, such movements become 
formidable enough to attain temporary im- 
portance. Another instance of somewhat similar 
character, but not so distinctly associated with 
trades unionism, was the candidacy of William 
R. Hearst for Mayor of New York City in 1905. 
In that campaign many unions oflScially passed 
resolutions of endorsement, which, though not 
binding upon members, were so expressive of the 
feelings of the great majority of them as to meet 
with hardly any opposition. But the significant 
fact about all these revolts from customary party 
affiliations is their evanescent character. En- 
thusiasm they occasionally develop; vitality never. 

Naturally there will spring to every mind in 
connection wath this phase of our discussion, the 
name of the Socialist party. Here, its members 
will declare, is a vehicle ready to the hands and 
peculiarly fitted to the needs of workingmen, 

[105] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

The Socialist party ha* shown unquestionable 
vitality and growth. 

As for the ''labor parties" that are born so 
often and just as often die "a-bornin'/' so far as 
my observation permits me to form an opinion, 
they are principally the victims of a suspicion 
which is frequently justified by facts. They are 
believed to be created and dominated by men who 
make their positions in the labor movement an 
asset in their efforts for personal aggrandizement 
in politics; men who frequently are known to have 
intimate aflSliations with the most corrupt and 
self-seeking political machines; men who have 
already been beneficiaries of such machines, or 
who are shrewdly suspected of being animated 
by lively ambition to deserve that kind of favor. 
Such "parties" are commonly believed to be 
financed by one or the other of the principal 
parties in the hope of making a diversion from its 
rival which shall redound to its own benefit. 
Barring such tremendous and spontaneous move- 
ments as those on behalf of Henry George and 
William R. Hearst, they are regarded with dis- 
trust. Whether these suspicions are well founded 
or not, they are nevertheless so generally harbored 

[106] 



RELATED THINGS 

that such ** parties" cannot overcome the handicap 
saddled upon them by their dubious origin. 

But none of this can be said of the Socialist 
party and of those who compose it. Men may 
question their wisdom, think slightingly of their 
judgment, but cannot doubt their sincerity. The 
way of material advancement for the unscrupulous 
self-seeker does not lie in the public advocacy of 
Socialist doctrines. Because of this conviction 
of the truth of its teachings, because of the 
evident enthusiasm and devotion to principle of 
its adherents, the Socialist party has shown virility 
and growth. Numbers have been converted to it, 
and larger numbers have voted with it, as the most 
eflFective available vehicle for the protest they 
felt impelled to make against existing political 
and industrial conditions. Entirely disregarding 
the little ^^ labor" parties, it is worth each in- 
dividual's while to seriously consider his political 
duty towards the Socialist party. My own con- 
victions, reached after just such serious considera- 
tion, are (1) that individuality is too potent a 
factor in human nature and development to be 
submerged to the extent that Socialism would 
submerge it, and (2) that class consciousness, or 
voluntary segregation ought to be rejected. 

[107] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

It has been said that human beings are like 
islands, each of whom has in spirit and mentality 
no point of contact with any other. The conclu- 
sions which are here advanced are my own, reached 
as a result of my own reflections, and to what 
extent they are valid as the conclusions which 
should actuate others, each island will decide 
for himself. Individualism makes itself always 
and everywhere evident in the desire for exclusive 
ownership of things. This tendency of human 
nature has been overemphasized until it has 
become wolfish, and it would be for the benefit 
of humanity if the rights of exclusive ownership 
were modified in respect of some things. It is a 
natural and proper desire as applied to all things 
which are the result of human production, which 
are made by a man himself or are purchased with 
the fruits of his own labor; it is not a proper 
desire as applied to that which no man can either 
add to or subtract from, which is not the work of 
his hands, and the existence of which is a sine 
qua non before satisfaction of human wants can 
be attempted. I will not be mysterious: the 
planet itself as our dwelling place, and the store- 
house from which we must obtain subsistence, 
should be the property of the community. The 

[108] 



RELATED THINGS 

land, the water, the air, and that which may be 
in the bowels of the earth, should not be the 
exclusive property of an individual, and the 
premium which an individual rightly pays for 
exclusive use of these should be paid to the com- 
munity for its common fund. But that which a 
man has constructed or purchased for the purpose 
of facilitating his use of the planet, — that should 
be his own as against all the world. 

For a long time I mentally debated whether it 
was my duty to become a party Socialist. This 
question of what the individual was entitled to 
exclusive possession of was to me a stumbling 
block. Then I read ''Progress and Poverty" 
and at once grasped the distinction between what 
is naturally the common heritage and what is 
just as naturally the exclusive property of the 
man who makes or earns it, and I became a con- 
vert to the doctrine of land value taxation — more 
familiarly known as the single tax. That doctrine 
satisfied both the social and indi^4dual instincts 
within me, and was for me a controlling reason 
for finally deciding against aUiance with the 
Socialist party. It is mentioned here incidentally 
in support of my contention that unions ought not 
to be partisan, and the union man who owns a 

[109] 



PROBLEMS OP ORGANIZED LABOR 

little home and fancies I wish to use union solidar- 
ity to take it from him, may calm his fears and 
need not chill toward the actions elsewhere urged 
herein upon trades unionists, for the object of this 
book is wholly directed toward improvement of 
union methods of organization and upbuilding, 
leaving such matters as this for independent con- 
sideration. Certainly, I know that if he would 
examine the subject he would find the compensa- 
tions of relief from all other direct and indirect tax 
burdens upon his industry far outweigh the pay- 
ment to the community of the full rental value of 
his land — land only, remember. I repeat, how- 
ever, that it is not my intention to write a disquisi- 
tion on the single tax, which could not be done in 
the space assigned to this brief argument, but 
merely to indicate that the attitude of workingmen 
generally toward a distinctive workingmen's party 
is a correct one, viewed from this standpoint of 
individualism, even though it may not have been 
careful reasoning that led them to it, and even 
though they will not at present agree that the 
right of exclusive ownership should be restricted 
to things of human production. 

Relative to the second conclusion, that class 
consciousness as a doctrine ought to be rejected, 

[110] 



RELATED THINGS 

I hold that the interests of every unit in a com- 
munity are inseparable from the interests of 
all the other units. Not that they are absolutely 
identical; maladjustments due to violations of the 
natural law that natural resources ought to be 
equally free to all men must cause clashes in 
interest between those who have succeeded in 
monopolizing natural resources and those who 
must use them or die. But the line of cleavage 
is not between employer and employed; it is 
between monopolizer and user. An illustration 
may serve to explain this more clearly. Let us 
suppose a factory located on a river and dependent 
for power on its flow. If the power site is owned 
by a person or corporation other than the owner 
of the factory, is not the employer equally with 
his employees denied access to and use of the 
power until they have paid tribute to the owner 
of the power site.^ If the factory is run by steam, 
does not the coal mine owner stand in the same 
relation to both employer and employee? If a 
merchant wishes to use a site for business purposes 
which becomes progressively more valuable, are 
not the merchant and his customers (among 
whom workingmen are included) united in in- 
terest against the monopolizer of the land, who 

[111] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

continuously absorbs the appreciation of site 
value caused by the energy of the merchant and 
the presence and purchasing power of the people? 

Workingmen as a class feel the injury more 
keenly because of their poverty than the wealthier 
merchant or manufacturer, but the difference is 
one of degree, and not of kind; its influence is 
exerted against every individual throughout the 
thousand and one gradations that make up so- 
ciety, for we must all use natural resources for 
the satisfaction of our wants, the ownership of 
which is confined to an extremely limited number. 
For this reason, therefore, it is right that working- 
men should not be gathered into an exclusive 
political organization, for they are not exclusive 
sufferers from this condition. 

Again, the evils that unionism seeks legislative 
remedies for are not partisan in their nature. 
The elimination of child labor, the proper sanita- 
tion of factories, the enactment of laws assuring 
reasonable compensation for injuries, can be ob- 
tained by the unions as trade organizations. 
The members of unions could and should act 
concertedly in such matters, and yet there would 
remain too many points upon which difference 

[112] 



RELATED THINGS 

in opinion would arise among them to permit the 

maintenance of a single political organization. 

The history of Sociahsm is itself proof of how 
questions of opinion or expediency will divide 
members of a workingmen's party. In the 
United States there has already been one spht, 
and another is impending. Even the marvelous 
German Socialist organization has more than 
once developed formidable differences of opinion 
which threatened secession. Edward Bernstein, 
a German SociaKst writer of note, has urged 
important modifications of the Marxian theory, 
as generally interpreted by Socialists, particularly 
in regard to an expected class war between an ever 
diminishing capitalist class and an ever increasing 
proletariat. Bernstein's Sociahsm is distinctly 
progressive, as opposed to the type which looks 
forward to a collapse of the capitalistic order. He 
therefore rejects the pohcy of segregation. Sup- 
porting the social growth idea, he favors co- 
operation with non-socialist efforts that make for 
sociahstic growth. He speaks of 

'' the march forward of the working 
classes, who step by step must work out 

their emancipation by changing society 
from the domain of a commercial land- 
holding oligarchv to a real democracy, 

ni3] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

which in all its departments is guided 
by the interests of those who work and 
create." 

That rigidity which is commonly attributed to 
Socialists by those who know no more about 
them than ' that they exist, is mythical. The 
English parliamentary group is frankly oppor- 
tunist, as Mr. Henry G. Roberts, on a recent 
visit here, told me in conversation. Victor 
Berger and his Milwaukee coadjutors are con- 
tinually under the suspicion of lapsing toward 
opportunism. Personal friends who are party 
members have confessed to me that they consider 
the tendency toward opportunism as irresistible, 
but that they wish to withstand it as long as 
possible. 

For example, I want the initiative, referendum 
and recall, and think them tools for our further 
progress, and am not adverse to acting with any 
party or persons to get them, feeling myself not 
tied to any a moment longer than they serve my 
purpose. The hidebound partisanship the Social- 
ist complains of in the followers of the old parties 
is notably exemplified in himself; most humorously 
when he objects to the partial adoption of his 
program by others as theft. 

[114] 



RELATED THINGS 

I think I can get them, and for the present I care 
nothing for the party label that helps me get them. 
That is what I mean when I say that there should 
not be segregation of workingmen in an exclusive 
party. Other men not mechanics may agree with 
me on the desirability of these methods of govern- 
ment; I shall not refuse to agree with them and 
to travel with them so long as our destinations are 
identical. We can part when our opinions diverge. 

I regard the ideal state of a voting constituency 
as one in which each voter has a sufficiently inde- 
pendent mind to feel that his opinion on the ruling 
issue of each election should control his vote in 
that election, and that partisanship should be as 
fluid as the changing needs of the community 
require for the purpose of making effective the 
will of the community. 

This is opportunism, and I am opportunist. 
To the man who hurls that at me as a reproach I 
say: You're another — at least sometimes. 

The advice which I offer, then, is that the prob- 
lems of the hour be settled in that hour, thru any 
medium and in conjunction with any bodies who 
think similarly. 

If this book is favored by finding readers and 
critics, I expect my Socialist friends (among whom 

[116] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

there are many whom I respect and admire) 
to accuse me of flagrant inconsistency for advo- 
cating wider and wider co-operation in my pre- 
ceding chapters, and now declaring against their 
propaganda as an entirety. To them I would 
point out this difference: They seek to capture 
the machinery of government with the intention 
of then reorganizing the industrial system. I 
would induce ever widening co-operation in 
industry and distribution, and let evolution lead 
us where it will as regards political institutions. 
I am confident that the political machinery will 
conform itself to the needs of the industrial 
system as those needs are developed. Wider co- 
operation undoubtedly will tend to unify interests 
and opinions now more or less diverse, and political 
parties have always been Protean, bound to as- 
sume the form and color of the masses which 
compose them. A co-operative trading society 
such as is advocated in a previous chapter would 
exert political influence as well as economical in- 
fluence. Should the natural outcome of ever 
widening co-operation be the formation of a 
co-operative commonwealth upon the lines laid 
down by Socialist writers, with the state as the 
owner of all the means of production, well and 

[116] 



RELATED THINGS 

good. We have so long a road to travel that we 
need not quarrel now about finalities, even if 
finalities are possible. But I would extend the 
same welcome to any other solution that might be 
evolved, being certain that mankind is on its up- 
ward way, stumbhng and halting though its prog- 
ress may be. 

The report of President Gompers to the 1911 
convention of the American Federation of Labor, 
under the caption of ''Pohtical Changes Affecting 
Labor," contains a strong indorsement of the in- 
itiative and referendum, the recall, direct nomina- 
tions, and direct election of Senators. The in- 
fluence of these methods of government upon 
wage scales may not be apparent, but their 
influence upon general welfare is ob^'ious. And 
again the hne of cleavage in such matters is not 
between employers and employed. Working- 
men as well as others are divided for and against 
such propositions, and they will seek pohtical 
affiliations in accordance with their opinions and 
independently of their trade associations. These 
are issues outside the bounds of parties; at least 
as parties are now constituted. There is in many 
parts of the country a movement for what are 
called social centers, which aim to gather the 

[117] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

people of a neighborhood together for the dis- 
cussion of Hving questions. Schoolhouses are 
generally utilized as meeting places, and in some 
sections the school buildings are planned to admit 
of such use. Trades unionists might well assist 
such a movement, and it will be a crucible in 
which all of us, union man and non-union man, 
employer and employed, professional man and 
laborer, will give something and receive something, 
and out of which may come the answer of how 
unionism will find political expression: not as an 
army blindly obeying oflBcers, but as individuals 
led by reasoning to identical conclusions. 

To sum up, both benefit and injury come to the 
great body of citizenship from like causes; hence 
our position as union men is indivisible from our 
position as citizens, and political segregation is 
quite as impossible as segregation in any other 
relation of life. 



[118] 



Xil. SUMMARY 

The aim of trades unionism is the same now as 
it has always been — to secure mutual protection 
and advantage by united action. But the problem 
of trades unionism has changed, and the means 
whereby such mutual protection and advantage 
are to be secured must be conformed to the new 
conditions that have arisen. Rabbi Wise has 
told us we must more than ever "Organize! 
Organize! Organize!" Does that mean to induce 
many persons to become members, and then to 
regard organization as completed.^ Let us in- 
quire into the meaning of that word "organiza- 
tion.'" Webster defines it as "the act of arranging 
in a systematic way for use or action.'" Such a 
definition of organization has never been ap- 
plicable to organized labor. We have never ar- 
ranged in a systematic way the power inherent 
in a mass of men for use or action. 

There are two ways of satisfying the instinct 
of self -development — the brutal way of destroying 
or thrusting aside who and what stands in the 

[119] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

way, and the enlightened selfishness which makes 
others useful to itself by making itself useful to 
others. It is not a question of the sincerity of a 
man like William D. Haywood and those who fol- 
low him. It may well be that he is filled with a 
consuming fire which urges him to do and to teach 
what he does and teaches in the belief and expecta- 
tion that it is the way — to him the only way — of 
uplifting and bettering mankind. One may have 
considerable respect for the character of Danton 
and yet not approve the methods of the Mountain. 
Not abuse for the man, not personal hatred, but 
unqualified opposition to what he preaches, is 
my stand. It is not a personal devil, but an 
idea, with which we must contend. Let us not 
forget that they danced for joy in Paris when 
Danton was dead and Robespierre was dead. 
Because then they had won freedom.^ No; be- 
cause then they had gained peace and security, 
even though they were accompanied by a reaction 
which placed an emperor on the throne of a king; 
which left them with the same problems of 
poverty in the midst of plenty which they had 
shed so much blood to solve. The murderous 
violence which first attacked the feudal nobles was 
ere long directed against those whom it was meant 

[120] 



SUMMARY 

to save. It was the people who danced for joy 
when the Terror had spent itself and the emigres 
came trooping back. You will say it rid France 
of feudaKsm. True; but it did not solve the 
problem. Only changed its terms. 

Men should be willing to fight. It may well be 
that unless they are willing to fight, be it to suffer 
hunger in a strike, or to suffer death in a battle, 
their efforts were otherwise vain. But that is not 
the same spirit as the spirit which counsels un- 
ceasing strife, war to the death, with no quarter 
asked and none given. Jack London, in ''The 
Iron Heel," has visualized the gospel of Haywood. 
After centuries of brutality and misery he pictures 
life, and light, and peace. But who shall say that 
that must be the ending? The novehst, omnipo- 
tent over the incidents of his book, may choose 
to make it so. But even if it were, is that game 
worth the candle if there is another way.^ 

Such a way there is, and the principle of it is a 
hundred times insisted upon in this book. Vary 
the terms of the problem as you will, present it in 
its myriad phases, yet you will always find the 
solution in peaceful, intelligent co-operation. The 
Golden Rule is alive in it, for it cannot succeed 

[121] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

without mutual helpfulness and consideration, 
and it cannot fail with them. 

And then we have those of the other extreme, 
who would keep the crafts apart in the industries, 
and as far as possible keep the individuals apart 
in the crafts; who want ''old fashioned unionism," 
in these later days of another fashion. To them 
the sole function of a union is to get more wages, 
and the sole means of getting more wages is to 
strike. They do not see that the jacking up of 
wages is an effort which very soon meets the law 
of diminishing returns. Wages too low for decent 
subsistence may be very rapidly advanced by 
organization, supplemented by the willingness to 
strike. But wages which have reached a com- 
paratively high standard are only raised by an 
expenditure of energy out of all proportion to the 
return, and each succeeding raise requires efforts 
inversely proportioned to the height which they 
have already attained. Equally they do not see 
that to make their wages buy more is just as much 
a raise of wages as more dollars in the pay en- 
velope. ''Keep the union to its proper func- 
tions," is their cry. "Anything that can serve 
us and strengthen us is the proper function of 
the union," is my answer. 

[122] 



SUMMARY 

It is a via media that is here offered between 
the way of those who aim at revolution and the 
way of those who will not accept evolution. 
Under their proper heads are considered plans 
which are to the advantage of union men as 
individuals, but which have the much greater 
merit of complementing each other as aids to the 
upbuilding of the whole system. 

Arbitration agreements will help us turn many 
ugly corners, and they will not be one-sided 
agreements when made with a highly organized 
body that can fight and will fight if denied sub- 
stantial justice. Let us have as individuals 
what opinions we may as to the righteousness of 
the existing industrial system; it will neither 
be mended nor ended in a day. But while we 
strive for betterment, for progress, let us wisely 
recognize that we must all live on this footstool, 
and let us make the terms of living no harsher 
than the needs of progress compel. 

What shall be done to lift up unskilled labor 
and that skilled labor which, by reason of ig- 
norance of the language and lack of education, 
is so pre-eminently marked for exploitation, will 
give us much to reflect upon. Yet I believe that 
organization by industry will greatly alleviate 

[123] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

their case. An aristocracy of labor which holds 
itself aloof from the humbler toiler is in no wise 
different from an aristocracy of birth or wealth 
which holds itself superior to the artisan. Indus- 
trial organization must bring into its fold all em- 
ployed in a certain line of production, must 
give them better knowledge of each other, must 
induce co-operation among them. And all this 
must tend to greater diffusion of benefit, instead 
of the narrow prosperity of a comparative few, 
based on the degradation of the many. 

Insurance benefits have been sufficiently con- 
sidered. Their need is obvious and their practi- 
cability assured. Such benefits will keep the wolf 
of starvation out of many a home, even if they 
cannot prevent him from barking at the door. 
As a means of binding us together and making a 
union card a valuable asset, it is difficult to over- 
estimate their usefulness. 

We should not be blind to the fact that against 
us organization is being highly perfected. Even 
strike-breaking is now an organized industry. 
Furthermore, whether it sounds like heresy or not, 
a strike breaker has a right to work in our places 
if he wants to, and the way to stop him is not 
with a club, for he has anticipated us in that 

[ 124 ] 



SUMMARY 

respect and has secured a license to use a gun. 
But we will stop him much more effectively if we 
let both him and his product severely alone. For 
that reason I believe the co-operative trading 
society is infinitely the most important suggestion 
offered, and the adoption of it alone is worth more 
than the adoption of all the others without it. 
Its effects will be far broader and deeper than the 
confines of trades unionism. If it was successful 
at all it would bring into closer relation vast 
numbers of persons who have now no direct con- 
nection with trades unionism and only distorted 
notions of trades unionists. Men and women 
not employed in trades, attracted at first by the 
purely mercenary considerations of saving for 
themselves the extortionate cost of supplying 
necessaries through an army of unnecessary 
middlemen, would come to know that the exist- 
ence of trades unionism is of vital benefit to 
society, as a force which combats, and sometimes 
combats alone, a greed that might otherwise find 
no check. They would learn that its efforts for 
high wages widely diffused and liberally spent 
add to general welfare and prosperity. So 
learning, they would no longer view the trades 
unionist as a disturber and unconscionable grafter, 

[125] 



PROBLEMS OP ORGANIZED LABOR 

but as one who is the exemplar of a limited altru- 
ism which can be made to include themselves 
when they are ready to apply his maxims. And 
on the other hand, contact and mutual labor for 
the co-operative society in which both are inter- 
ested would give the unionist a clearer conception 
of the fact that those whom he now so frequently 
despises as sycophantic counter jumpers and 
clerks are very much as he is himself, working 
under like conditions, confronted by similar 
problems, and with no other means of solving 
them. Both kinds of people would find their 
mutual prejudices dissolving before the more and 
more clear perception that there is nothing but 
their prejudices separating them. Such co-opera- 
tion would assist in the establishment of real 
democracy, for community of interest and better 
acquaintance must tend to much greater uni- 
formity of opinion as to political expression; as 
regards essentials, at least. And this is true of 
union men as well as of those who are employed 
in occupations that know no unionism as yet. 
Their unionism is far too contracted in scope to 
bring forth the fruit that true unionism would 
bear. In the chapter devoted to this subject 

[126] 



SUMMARY 

its direct and immediate advantages are suffi- 
ciently dilated upon; less superficial, but in the 
end of transcendent importance, are the ad- 
vantages which must follow closer acquaintance 
and better understanding of our mutual inter- 
dependence. 

Do I hear sneers and note signs of ridicule? 
Little souls, darkened souls, complacent souls, 
mine it is to look down on you, not you on me! 
For I stand upon a great height and can see far 
and wide. I do not give up hope of seeing with 
mine own eyes at least an approach to the Land 
of Promise. For men's minds are strangely 
moved in these days, and it may be that great 
things are impending. Surely the time is fast 
ripening. But if it be not yet, nor even soon, 
then nevertheless it is given to me to know that 
along some such road as this, under some such 
banner as this, the army of advancing mankind 
shall march. And the words that are me shall 
live when the dust that was me hath moldered. 

What Shall We Do.^ is a pregnant question 
which must be answered. I have prayed for 
wisdom to find the truth and for the power of 
language to impart it. To me this little book 

[127] 



PROBLEMS OF ORGANIZED LABOR 

has been a solemn work. Of the reader I ask an 
open mind, and to my last conscious moment I 
will thank Him who gave me the faculty to write 
the book if from it there shall spring aught of 
advantage to the cause of organized labor. 

THE END 



[128] 



INDEX 

PAGS 

A. F. of L 22, 72, 90, 101, 117 

American, Strike on Chicago S5 et seq. 

Apprentice, The 76 et seq. 

Arbitration 42 e^ seq, 

compulsory 45 

in cloak industry 46 

in printing industry 47 

in Germany 48 e^ seq. 

Assessments for insurance benefits. Percentage plan of . . 60 et seq. 

Backward, A Glance 4 

Benefits, Insurance 55 et seq, 

against death 5% et seq. 

" sickness 58 et seq. 

" unemployment 55, 64, 73 

of Cigarmakers' International Union Ql et seq, 

of International Typographical Union 62 e^ seq, 

old age pensions 65 et seq, 

percentage plan of assessments for 60 e< seq, 

Berger, Victor 113 

Bernstein, Edward 113 

Berry, President, International Union of Printing Press- 
men SI et seq. 

Boycott, The 32, 88 e^ seq. 

Buck Stove and Range Company, boycott on 90 

Butterick Company, boycott on 90 

By Way of Explanation 28 ei seq. 

C. G. T. (Confederation Generale du Travail) 1^ et seq., 33 

Cherouny, Henry W 48 

Chicago American, strike on ^ et seq. 

[129] 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Cigarmakers' International Union 61 et seq., 95, 99 

insurance against death 5S et seq. 

" " sickness 5S et seq, 

" " unemployment 55, 64, 73 

label of 95, 99 

Cloak industry, arbitration in 46 

Compulsory arbitration 45 

Co-operative Trading S4i et seq., 125 

boycott, the 32, 88 e^ seq, 

high cost of living, the 86 e^ seq, 

label, the , 32, 88 et seq, 

Rochdale pioneers 100 

Direct Action 6, 14 ei seq. 

Explanation, By Way of ^S et seq. 

Farmers' Educational and Co-operative Union of America 101 
Freel, President, International Stereotypers' Union 37 

General Strike 15 et seq. 

George, Henry 106 

Glance Backward, A 4 

Golden Rule 121 

Gompers, President, A. F. of L 117 

Harvester Company, International, pension plan of 69 

Haywood, William D 120 

Hearst, William R 105, 106 

High cost of living SQ et seq, 

Howard, Judge 87 

Initiative, referendum and recall 114, 115 

Injunctions, writs of, in strikes 7 

Insurance Benefits 55 et seq, 

against death 58 et seq. 

" sickness 58 e^ seq. 

" unemployment 55, 64, 73 

of Cigarmakers' International Union 61 et seq, 

[130] 



INDEX 

PAQE 

Insurance of International Typographical Union 62 e^ seq, 

old age pensions 65 et seq. 

percentage plan of assessments for 60 6^ seq. 

International Harvester Company, pension plan of 69 

International Unions — 

Cigarmakers' 55 et seq., 95, 99 

insurance against death 5S et seq. 

" " sickness 5S et seq. 

" " unemployment 55, 64, 73 

label of 95, 99 

Printing Pressmen S7 et seq. 

President Berry S7 et seq. 

Stereotypers' 37 et seq. 

President Freel S7 et seq. 

Typographical 37, 47, 62 e^ seq., 90 

boycott on Butterick Company 90 

insurance benefits of 6'jt et seq. 

old age pension plan of 72 

President L;yTich 37 ^ seq. 

strike on Chicago American S5 et seq. 

Iron Heel, The 121 ^^ seq. 

Irritation Strike 15 et seq. 

I. W. W. (Industrial Workers of the World), 21 et seq., 33, 

42, 45, 119 et seq. 

C. G. T 19 et seq., 83 

general strike 15 et seq. 

Haywood, WilHam D 120 

irritation strike 15 et seq. 

'Sabotage 17 et seq. 

Sorel, George 20, 24 

Label, The 32, 88 et seq. 

Labor parties 105 et seq. 

Labor, imskilled 23, 24, 123 

Lawrence, strike at 12 

Life insurance 58 et seq. 

Limoges, meeting at 19 

[131] 



INDEX 

London, Jack 121 

Los Angeles outrage 2, 11 

Lynch, President, International Typographical Union . . S7 et seq. 

McNamaras 1, 6, 11 

Mazzini, Words of 2 

Nantes, meeting at 18 

Newspaper Publishers Association of North America ... 35, 47 

Old age pensions 65 ei seq. 

Opportunism 115 

Organization by Industry 23, 33 et seq., 42 et seq. 

Organization, Definition of 119 

Parties, labor 105 et seq. 

Pensions, old age Q5 et seq. 

plan of International Harvester Co 69 

" International Typographical Union 72 

U. S. Steel Corporation 68, 69 

Picket line 1 et seq. 

Pressmen, International Union of Printing 37 

President Berry, of 37 

strike on Chicago American 35 d seq. 

Printing industry, arbitration in 47 

in Germany, arbitration in i^ et seq. 

"Progress and Poverty" 109 

Rabbi Stephen S. Wise 21, 99, 119 

Related Things 103 et seq. 

Roberts, Henry G 114 

Rochdale pioneers 100 

"Romance of Words" 17 

Sabotage 17 et seq. 

Schoolhouses as social centers 118 

Sickness, insurance against 58 ef seq. 

Single tax 109 et seq. 

Social centers, schoolhouses as 118 

[132] 



INDEX 

PA«a 

Socialism 14, 15, 106 et seq, 

Berger, Victor 114 

Bernstein, Edward 113 

Roberts, Henry G 114 

Sorel, George 20, 24 

Steffens, Lincoln 2 

Stereotypers, International Union 37 

President Freel, of 37 

strike on Chicago American S5 et seq. 

Strike, The 5, 12, 15 e< seq., 29, 35 et seq., 51 et seq. 

at Lawrence 12 

general 15 et seq. 

irritation 15 et seq. 

on Chicago American S5 et seq. 

Strikes, picket line in 7 et seq. 

violence in 7 et seq. 

writs of injunction in 7 

Summary 119 et seq. 

Syndicalism 6, 14 et seq., 41, 42, 119 et seq. 

C. G. T 19 e^ seq., 33 

general strike 15 et seq. 

Haywood, William D 120 

history of, in France IS et seq. 

irritation strike 15 et seq. 

"Iron Heel, The" 121 

I. W. W e,tlet seq., 33, 42, 45, 119 et seq. 

London, Jack 121 

organization by industry 23, 41 

sabotage 17 et seq. 

Sorel, George 20, 24 

syndicats jaunes 18 et seq. 

" rouges 18 et seq. 

Taft, President 2 

Trading, Co-operative S4i et seq., 125 

boycott, the 32, 88 e^ seq. 

high cost of Uving 86 d seq. 

[133] 



INDEX 

PAGE 

Trading label, the 32, 88 et seq, 

Rochdale pioneers 100 

Typographical Union, International 37, 47, Q^ et seq, 

boycott on Butterick Company 90 et seq, 

insurance benefits of 6% et seq. 

President Lynch of S7 et seq, 

strike on Chicago American S5 et seq. 

Unemployment, insurance against 55, 64, 73 

Union, function of the 31, 122 

United States Steel Corporation, pension plan of QS et seq. 

Unskilled labor 23, 24, 123 

Violence in strikes 7 et seq, 

Webster's definition of "organization" 119 

Weekley, Ernest 17 

What Shall We Do? 1 

Wise, Rabbi Stephen S 21, 99, 119 

Words of Mazzini 2 



[134] 



'npHE following pages contain advertisements of a few 
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OCT 24 1912 



